


Bleeding Out

by DimensionTripperHanayo



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-03-13 15:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13573161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DimensionTripperHanayo/pseuds/DimensionTripperHanayo
Summary: Love Live zombie AU. Muse find themselves fighting for survival when the city is suddenly attacked by the living dead. Together with allies they find along the way, they have to find a way to fight through the horde to safety.





	1. Chapter 1

Maki stretched as she looked up from the piano, a yawn escaping her. She hadn't really been able to get much sleep recently because of how much Nico had been sleeping at her house. About a month ago, people just started disappearing without reason. Maki turned to Nico who was busy sorting through papers in the music room. Cocoa, Nico’s youngest sister was one of the people who went missing.   
  
Maki sighed as she thought about what to say to her, everything she thought of felt like it would make things worse.   
  
Maki walked towards the window, looking out at the afternoon sky before her attention went down to the school running track. Hanayo walked around slowly, lost in her her thoughts. Even from the second floor, Maki could see that Hanayo had something troubling her and it wasn't hard to figure out what. Only Nico and herself knew about Nico's sister so it must have been about Muse.  
  
Maki glanced over to Nico, trying to think about how the girl felt about the split. When Honoka announced it, Nico had been too busy thinking about her sister to pay attention. It wouldn't have surprised Maki if Nico didn't even know.  
  
"Is there something on my face?" Nico sat up right, turning to Maki suddenly. "Because you've done nothing but stare at me for while now." She stretched, still looking towards the redhead, awaiting her answer.  
  
"Just lost in thought." Maki answered, turning back to the window. She hadn’t even known Nico could see her looking at her.  
  
"...Whatever." Nico muttered as she returned to sorting the paper into the correct draws. She didn't care enough about what Maki was staring at. She just hoped to any gods that would listen that her sister was okay.  
  
"Are you sleeping over again tonight?" Maki asked as she stood up from the piano stool, having finished cleaning the piano. She turned her attention to the smaller idol. "I mean it's fine, but I'm going to need to change the sheets..."  
  
"No." Nico replied quickly, keeping her attention on the papers she was sorting through with no real purpose. They were supposed to be cleaning the music room, but she couldn't stop thinking about her sister. "I shouldn't stay at yours every night."  
  
Maki sighed as she looked away, wiping the cloth in her hand over the windowsill. She enjoyed Nico staying at her house. It looked like they were together, though she would never actually admit that to Nico. She didn't really know how long it had been since her feelings for Nico had started, maybe when she’d joined Muse or maybe after. All she knew for sure was that Nico was the person she cared for the most, the person she had the strongest feelings for. She just didn't know how to tell her. The main reason she hadn't was because of Nico's sister disappearing. She wished Nico could find something out about what had happened to her sister, just so she could go back to the normal Nico. "Well, how about one last night? I had something planned for tonight."  
  
Nico frowned as she turned to Maki, sceptical that she actually planned anything. Normally it was always Nico who suggested things to do. "Fine, but what do you have planned?"   
  
Maki turned away, hiding her blushing face. She only had one chance left. One chance left to tell her how she felt about her.  
  
"You'll find out later. Geez, trying to ruin the surprise..." Maki replied with a huff, returning to cleaning the window. She had to tell her how she felt before Nico finished the year, afterwards would be too late.   
  
\---  
  
Rin looked towards Hanayo in confusion, watching as the quiet idol walked slowly around the school running track, her hands together in front of her. She had no idea how long Hanayo had been walking around aimlessly or even when she started. All she knew for sure was what was bothering her.  
  
"Kayo-chin!" Rin yelled, running over as Hanayo turned around, the gap being closed pretty quickly. "What's up?  
  
"The sky..."  
  
"Ha!"  
  
Rin sighed as an awkward silence fell over the two first years before Hanayo stopped, looking towards Rin who had taken another step. "I can't believe Muse is ending..."   
  
Rin let out a soft sigh, looking down to the ground. She had been trying not to think about it until then.   
  
"Kayo-chin..." She spoke softly, walking over to her quiet friend, throwing her arms around her as soon as she got to her. There was nothing they could do about the end of Muse. The third years were leaving. It wasn't fair, and wouldn’t feel right to continue the group without Eli, Nico and Nozomi. They were like a small family.  
  
"Muse is the only place I feel...special. Like I belong somewhere." Hanayo took a shuddering breath as she sat on the floor, her head in her hands. "I don't want it to end. I want us all to stay together forever."  
  
A soft smile tugged at Rin's lips as she sat beside her best friend, pulling her closer. Hanayo didn't resist, allowing herself to fall into Rin's side. "I know it's hard, nya. But we need to be strong." Hanayo furrowed her brow but didn't lift her head from Rin's shoulder. She was so warm, something she hadn't felt in a while. "We need to be strong for Eli, Nozomi and Nico, nya. They must be having the worst time out of us all. Nico barely said a word in the last meeting too."  
  
Hanayo nodded slightly as she thought back. She was right. It looked like Nico was too busy thinking about something else. "Okay." Rin smiled happily as Hanayo lifted herself off Rin, tears in her eyes. "Time to stop being a crybaby. We need to be strong for everyone else." Hanayo smiled softly, wiping the tears away with her sleeve.  
  
"That's the spirit, nya. Let's go."   
  
Hanayo nodded confidently at Rin's suggestion, getting helped up by Rin. She knew she shouldn't be wasting the little time they had left by crying. She needed to make good memories with the third years before they go.  
  
\---  
  
"Where is she?" Kotori questioned to herself as she walked down the hall, looking for someone she had never met before. The day before a club application form was sent to the student council asking to start a club named 'The Hero Club'. She had to find the president of the club, a second year like her, Honoka and Umi named Izetta, to ask her what the club was about. As the Student council treasurer, it was her job to decide the funds between all the clubs in the school. Depending on what the club was about, she would need to decide how much funds they would be given.  
  
Kotori turned the corner quickly, her eyes immediately fixing on a girl with short scarlet hair standing in the middle of the next hall handing out the club's flyers, clearly hoping to get new members. "Looking for others who want to help people too."  
  
Kotori stopped just short of the girl after hearing her speak. The club was about helping people? She hummed thoughtfully as she thought back, wondering if there was anyone who had made a club like that before. Maybe her mother would know?  
  
Izetta smiled as she turned around, her eyes widening in shock as she spotted Kotori looking at her. She couldn't believe one of the members of Muse was standing just in front of her.   
  
"Excuse me. Are you Himura-san?”  
  
Izetta jumped at the mention of her name, not sure what to think. On one hand she was happy Minami Kotori of all people knew her name, but on the other hand it meant that the student council had picked her out for something.  
  
"Yes! I is Izetta...I mean I AM Izetta." Izetta shuddered, looking down nervously. Kotori must have thought she was stupid. Her brow furrowed as she suddenly heard laughter, causing her to look up slowly.  
  
"I'm sorry..." Kotori started saying, holding her hand to her mouth as if it would stop the laughter coming out. "Just take your time. I only need to ask you a few questions concerning your club in the Student Council room. Do you mind coming with me?"   
  
Her tone was polite, a contrast to the laughter which had escaped her before. She couldn’t help it. Izetta looked too adorable when she was nervous.  
  
"O-Okay." Izetta answered slowly. She thought that she was in trouble for something.  
  
Kotori waited for Izetta to reach her side before she started to walk down the hallway. "Did you transfer here? I'm only asking because I would recognize a name as cool as yours."  
  
Izetta beamed with happiness at Kotori's question. Kotori thought her name was cool. Her favorite member of Muse liked her name. She didn't know when, but she must have died and gone to heaven.  
  
"Yes. My sister had to go away with the military so I agreed to be a transfer student and stay at the Principal's house."   
  
Kotori turned around, only just realising what her mother meant by someone might be staying with them.  
  
"Cool. That means you will be staying with me and my family. This is great, we can talk and play games." Kotori announced excitedly as she continued walking with Izetta close behind her.   
  
Izetta couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was going to be staying with Kotori. She could die happy now.   
  
"I'm so excited.” Kotori continued when Izetta didn’t verbally reply. “The only other girls who have slept over at my house are Honoka-chan and Umi-chan...before they became a thing."  
  
Izetta frowned in confusion as she heard sadness in the last part of what Kotori said. She knew that Kotori and Honoka were close and that they was close to Umi too. So why was Kotori upset?  
  
Izetta pause as she felt her phone suddenly start to vibrate. “Could you wait a minute, Kotori-senpai?” Izetta inquired as she reached into her pocket for her phone and pulled it out, checking the caller ID. “It’s my sister.”  
  
“It’s okay. Take your time.” Kotori smiled as she turned her attention to the club application form. At a rough glance, she could only see Izetta’s name on it. It explained why she was handing her flyers out to other students. When Honoka wanted to make Muse, she was lucky that Umi and herself were willing to join it with her. Because Izetta was a transfer student, she didn’t have anyone like that.  
  
“Hello?” Izetta questioned, speaking into her phone without realising she had turned the speaker on. “Are you there, Onee-chan?”   
  
Kotori hummed thoughtfully to herself again, wondering what it would be like having an older sister. If she did she hoped her older sister would be like Eli or Nozomi. Someone she could go to if she ever wanted to talk about anything bothering her.  
  
“Hi Izetta!”  
  
“Hi little Saya!”  
  
“Is that your sister?”  
  
“Will you guys go away!’  
  
Izetta flinched in pain, pulling away from the phone quickly realising she was on speaker. She had no idea who the first three excited voices were, but the last one was definitely her sister.  
  
“Sorry about that, Izetta. My squad were being idiots again!” Saya explained through the phone with quiet laughter in the background from her squad. Izetta didn’t know much about her sister’s squad other than there were two men and two women including her sister.  
  
“It’s okay. You all seem close.” Izetta quickly turned to Kotori, smiling softly at her. She didn’t mean to take up so much of her time, but she rarely got to talk to her sister. “How are you?”  
  
“I’m fine, and yeah. We’re like a little family.” Saya answered honestly with a gentle sigh, thinking about all of the missions her squad had been on together. “Anyway. Have you made it to the school alright?”  
  
“Yes, and I’ve met up with someone living where I am too.”   
  
Saya snickered to herself as heard the pride coming from her sister’s words.  
  
“Well done, Izetta, but I’ve gotta go. I’m sorry I can’t talk to you more…” Saya let out a defeated sigh, wishing she could talk to her sister more before she had to go.  
  
“It’s okay Onee-chan. Your job is important. Bye.” Izetta said softly though Kotori could tell that she was upset she couldn’t talk to her sister for longer. She didn’t mean to listen in on the scarlet haired girl’s conversation but she couldn’t help it. Izetta still had the phone call on speaker, most likely unintentionally.  
  
“Okay, sorry for the wait. I’m ready when you are.”   
  
Kotori nodded with a smile, walking slowly so Izetta caught up.  
  
“Are you okay? Sorry for interfering but you sounded upset.”   
  
A small smile tugged at Izetta’s lips as she listened to Kotori. From what she’d hear about Kotori, she didn’t expect anything less from her, caring about other people. Even those she had only just met. That was why she was her favorite. “I’m perfect. Thanks.”  
  
Kotori nodded as they continue walking, noticing Izetta was holding onto her sleeve. Izetta hadn’t been at the school for long, probably less than a week. Kotori couldn’t blame her for not knowing how to get around.  
  
Izetta jumped at something warm suddenly wrapped around her hand, her cheeks burning up as she glanced down at him. Kotori’s hand was locked with hers, their fingers interlocking as they walked.  
  
“I just realised you probably don’t know your way around yet. So let’s hold hands so you don’t get lost. Is that okay?” Izetta could only nod slowly in response, completely speechless at what was happening to her. She was actually holding Minami Kotori’s hand. It had to be a dream.  
  
Izetta’s smile got larger as they continued to walk to the Student Council room. She felt like she was going to burst into a skip at any moment. She knew joining that school was the right choice.

\---

Nozomi opened the door to the club room slowly, the fact that door was unlocked proving that she was right. Eli stood in the dark room with her phone against her ear, tension filling the air.  
  
“Fuck!” Eli bellowed, flinging her phone across the room before she slammed her fist against the table.  
  
“Easy Elichi.” Nozomi spoke quickly, rushing over to her best friend. She had no idea what could make Eli so angry. Eli was someone who rarely lost her cool. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”  
  
“Yeah, I’m fucking great!” Nozomi flinched at Eli’s sudden tone, but she knew immediately that she didn’t mean to be mean. Eli turned away from her, looking down at the table and her red fist. “I’m...I’m sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay.” Nozomi spoke softly, pulling the blonde close and into a warm embrace. “I know you didn’t mean it. What’s wrong?”  
  
Eli shuddered in Nozomi’s tight hold, the tears she had been holding back flooding thick and fast. “I can’t find Arisa.”  
  
Nozomi closed her eyes, resting her head on Eli’s head. For Eli, family was the most important thing for her. If she thought Arisa or Raven were hurt, she would obviously be angry.  
  
“We’ll find her.” Nozomi muttered into Eli’s ear, running her hand through her long blonde hair. “Does she not have her phone?”  
  
“She has it, but…” Nozomi frowned at the vague answer as Eli pulled away from her, walking over to her phone. Luckily, the phone case stopped it from smashing. “The phone line is completely down.”  
  
Nozomi eyes widened in shock at the news. It explained why her father hadn’t called her yet when he promised that he would half an hour ago.  
  
“That’s not it either.” Eli began, walking to the window of the club room. “People all over Japan have been starting to go missing, Arisa and Yukino are just two of many.”  
  
“Yukino-chan’s missing too?” Nozomi couldn’t believe it. It explained why Honoka had been so isolated from everyone recently, barely saying anything. She looked up suddenly, movement catching her attention. “What the hell…?”  
  
Eli frowned as she looked out the window, her hand shaking. All across the city, large black clouds of smoke were starting to rise up. “Smoke? What the hell is going on?!”

\---

Honoka stood at one of the exterior stairwells, looking down with only her thoughts as company. She had no idea where Kotori was and Umi was too busy with archery so all she could do was wait. She could’ve gone to any of the other members of Muse, but she’d decided against it. When she announced Muse was disbanding everyone had taken it hard, herself included. They all needed time.  
  
Her breath shuddered as she rested her head on her arms, her mind constantly bringing up worst case scenarios about Yukino. It had been a week since she went missing and her mother had been at every police station many times over looking for her. Honoka couldn’t understand what could've happened to her. It felt like her life was falling apart. First Muse, now her sister.  
  
“Hey! This is private property!” Honoka jumped at the loud familiar voice of the gym teacher, looking towards the school’s open front gate. The gym teacher walked towards a strange figure shuffling forward with the school nurse following.  
  
Honoka couldn’t help but watch, noticing the strange black smoke rising around the city. The gym teacher got closer to the strange man, a wooden bat in his hand. “Get out of here!”  
  
“Mr Lobo. Please don’t be so rough. He looks inured.” Honoka squinted, leaning further over the railing to get a better view of the stranger. The nurse was right. She could see blood dripping from the man.  
  
“Okay, call an ambu…” Without warning the man sprung forward, the tattered clothing he was wearing falling off as he pounced on the gym teacher. Honoka stumbled backwards, her eyes wide in horror at the stranger. The stranger stood atop of the gym teacher with a huge chunk missing from his side, blood still spilling out from the wound but it didn’t look like the man even cared.  
  
“Leave him…” The nurse started to say, her voice shaky with fear. The stranger suddenly opened his mouth, unhinging it like a snake and sicking his teeth into the gym teacher’s neck. Honoka could barely believe what she was seeing, her entire body shaking uncontrollably. The stranger yanked it’s head back, tearing the gym teacher’s throat out with ease. Honoka span around quickly at the sight of the gym teacher’s blood, everything she ate recently flooding it’s way back out her mouth. She felt like her stomach was trying to get out of her mouth.  
  
She peeked back over, panic flooding through her body as one after another more half mutilated people rushed through the gate. One after another they got to students and teachers, tearing them apart and eating them. Honoka didn’t know what to do, she was stuck.  
  
“Honoka-chan!” Honoka flinched at her name, something pulling her to the side. She span around quickly, ready to try and fight off whatever was attacking her. Kotori and a redhead stood a step lower than her, both of them out of breath. “We need to get somewhere safe.”  
  
“The roof!” The redhead answered quickly, looking around while trying to block out all of the screams of pain from the other students. Those things were tearing them apart and there was nothing she could do about it.  
  
Honoka nodded, still shaken up by what she had seen. Like it or not, almost everything she loved and knew was gone.

\---

“One second, Elichi.” Eli turned around sharply at Nozomi’s statement, her eyes widening as Nozomi began to open the door.  
  
“Nozomi don’t!”  
  
Nozomi frowned in confusion, opening the door fully before Eli finished talking. On the other side of the doorway stood a tall woman with only a few strands of white hair still attached onto her rotting head. Nozomi stumbled back as the woman turned to her, no life in her eyes. The woman began to move into the room, her right arm falling off on the way inside.  
  
“Get back!”  
  
Nozomi jumped at the familiar voice, barely having anytime to react before Eli dashed past her. Eli jumped as she got to her friend’s side, slamming her fist into the walking corpse’s face. The creature stumbled back, falling to the ground with the door slamming shut again behind her.  
  
Nozomi was speechless, watching the blonde push a table in front of the wooden door. She couldn’t believe what was happening. The dead were walking around eating people. She felt like she was in a nightmare.  
  
“Goddamnit!” Eli’s yell snapped Nozomi out of her thoughts quickly, making her turn to her friend. Eli stood at the window with one of her feet on the wall beside it, trying to yank the window open. “Of course Nico would remember to lock the windows now!”  
  
“...What do we do?” Nozomi asked softly, trying to stop her hands from shaking. The screaming she was hearing was that of students, people she might have known being ripped apart and eaten. How could she not be scared? She looked up from her hand at Eli, watching in awe as the blonde snapped a chair’s legs off, ready to use it as some kind of weapon.  
  
“Okay, we need to get to the roof. It’ll be the best place to go, and hopefully everyone else had the same idea.” Eli explained as she practiced swinging the makeshift weapon. Nozomi shuddered as she looked down to Eli’s hand, they were shaking just as much as her’s. She didn’t understand how Eli could stay so calm.  
  
Eli took a deep breath as she looked out the window once more. This time blood was scattered on the ground. She couldn’t understand how something like this could happen. They weren’t in a horror film. Her breathing grew heavy as she looked behind her, watching Nozomi trying to help barricade the door by putting a chair on top of the table.  
  
Eli grunted, slapping herself on the cheeks.She couldn’t let herself get distracted. She had to protect Nozomi and she knew that Arisa was out there somewhere. She had to be strong, for them.  
  
“We need to get out of here. They’ll get in eventually anyway.” Eli stated, turning around back to Nozomi. “But we can’t do that unless we get rid of her outside.” Nozomi nodded slowly, surprised about how quickly Eli had adapted to the situation. This was the first time she had ever seen Eli so serious, but then again it was the first time their lives had been in danger.  
  
Eli jumped at the sound of glass smashing, doing a double take. Nozomi stood a few steps away from the window, surprised she managed to break the window with the chair.  
  
Eli could only look at her friend in surprise as she use the chair leg Eli snapped to get rid of the rest of the glass. She couldn’t just rely on Eli to do everything. It wasn’t fair on her. She already had Arisa’s disappearance to deal with without this adding to it. “There’s an outdoor staircase to the left of this room. Maybe we can get across to it.” Nozomi suggested as she looked down at her breasts. “Though, it might be hard to balance with these big things.”  
  
Eli sighed, the statement forcing her to look at Nozomi’s bust. She had looked before in secret, everyone had, they were too big to ignore. She found it stupid that even with the world feeling like it was ending, her face could still turn so red when she was looking at her friend’s breasts.  
  
“I don’t know. I’m pretty sure there’s a bandage in here if you want to wrap them up.” Eli suggested before she realised she went past looking and was now staring at Nozomi’s breasts. She turned away quickly, back to Nozomi’s face which had a mischievous grin on it.  
  
“Okay…” Nozomi replied in a devious manner, reaching into a draw to pull out one of the longest bandages.  
  
Eli face went flushed again as Nozomi reached down towards the bottom of her shirt, undoing the buttons one at a time. Eli covered her eyes quickly, parting two of the fingers slightly so she could see. She could hear Umi in her head yelling ‘shameless’.  
  
Nozomi grinned as she leaned closer. Eli couldn’t stop herself, all she could see was Nozomi’s purple bra. “We don’t have time for this Nozomi. Those...things could get in any minute…”  
  
“And yet you’re still peeking.” Nozomi replied with a chuckle, wrapping the bandage tightly around her bust. She felt like she was suffocating, but at least they were a hell of a lot easier to handle.  
  
“Let’s go.” Eli stated quickly, vaulting out the window carefully so she landed on the other side. She could see the staircase and it looked like there wasn’t any of those monsters on it.  
  
She turned quickly around, helping Nozomi through the window. She was surprised how much the bandage actually worked. Her breasts now looked to be around the same size as Honoka’s.  
  
“You’re staring again Elichi.”  
  
“Sorry.” Nozomi giggled at her best friends flustered face. She looked down, immediately regretting doing so. They were really high up. A drop from there wouldn’t kill them, but it would cripple then and leave them like a buffet for those monsters. She felt a hand slide into her own.   
  
“Hold my hand. We’ll take it nice and slowly.”  
  
Nozomi smiled softly at the blonde, her hand locked with Eli’s. She was glad she was with Eli when whatever was happening started. She wouldn’t have been able to do anything by herself. She just hoped her dad was safe.

\---

Hanayo ducked, narrowly dodging one of the ‘Walkers’ as Rin had started calling them. They were on the second floor of the school and trying to get to the roof, but everywhere they went the walkers were blocking their path. The only reason she hadn’t been killed and eaten so far was because of Rin and how quickly she adapted to what was happening. She had never seen the excitable idol act so serious before, taking charge.  
  
“This way, nya.” Rin said with a firm but quiet voice, walking with her back against the wall and Hanayo’s hand in hers. She could barely keep herself from shaking with fear, but she had to. She could feel Hanayo’s trembling through her hand. She couldn’t let Hanayo know she was just as scared.  
  
“NOW!”  
  
Rin jumped at the sudden voice, barely having time to turn and look before the door behind her swung open with a pair of hands grabbing her. Rin panicked as she got pulled into the room with Hanayo, doing the first thing that came to her head.  
  
“Calm…”  
  
Rin didn’t hear the voice as she swung her elbow back, hitting what she was guessing was one of the walkers holding onto her. The grip loosened, letting Rin quickly turn to the voice she cut off, her fist darting into it’s nose.  
  
“What the FUCK Rin?!” Rin eyes widened in horror at the familiar voice, only just realising what happened. Nico and Maki stood in the music room, blood dripping from their nostrils.   
  
“You elbowed me in the FACE!” Nico yelled in anger before she realised she was being to loud. Those monsters were starting to notice.  
  
“I thought you were a walker, nya!” Rin replied quickly, watching as Nico wiped the blood away with her sleeve. “And I was aiming for your stomach, it’s not my fault you’re so short, nya…”  
  
“‘Walker’? Damn it, Rin.” Maki replied angrily, taking the tissue in her pocket and wiping blood from Nico’s nose. “Don’t name them.”  
  
Maki and Nico flinched as Hanayo rushed over to them, wrapping her arms tightly around them. “I’m so happy you two are okay.” Hanayo stated, holding them tighter. She was scared that Rin and herself were the only ones left.  
  
“Have you seen anyone else?...Also, sorry.” Rin muttered, sitting down with her back against the wall. She was so tired.  
  
“No. We’ve been stuck in here since the end of the world started.” Nico answered honestly, earning herself an annoyed glare from Maki. “What? It’s true.”  
  
Maki shook her head before speaking. “We need to get to the basement. I bet that’s where everyone else has gone too.”  
  
Hanayo took a quick glance under the door, seeing a large cluster of feet stumbling around outside the room. “Let’s wait for a little, until it’s clear.”  
  
Everyone nodded at the suggestion, getting comfortable in the room. Maki gritted her teeth as she looked out of the window again. Why did this have to happen? Who did this? Maybe Nico was right about it being the end of the world.

\---

“Help!” A female student yelled out, pushing herself back across the floor with her feet in an attempt to get away from one of the walkers. She closed her eyes as the walker leaped at her, hearing a loud thud shortly after.  
  
“Are you okay?!”  
  
The girl opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she noticed was long blue hair. Sonoda Umi stood beside her with one of the bows from the archery club in her hand and four other students behind her.  
  
Umi glanced around. She knew either the roof or the basement would be the safest places to go but she was sure Honoka or Kotori would have gone to the roof. So that was where she was going, trying to help as many students as possible on the way.  
  
The girl nodded her head slowly, taking the hand Umi was holding out. Umi took a deep breath before yanking on the arrow inside the walker’s head. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take you somewhere safe, trust me.”  
  
The girl fell forward, tears running thick and fast from her eyes as she held onto Umi’s shirt. Umi looked down at the walker, vaguely recognizing him. His name was Tsukasa and he was part of the school’s newspaper club. She couldn’t believe what was happening, everything was normal only an hour ago. All she could do was tell herself that they weren’t people anymore. They were monsters. She had to kill them.  
  
“Let’s go.” Umi walked forward a couple of steps, leaving behind the small group so she could see what was behind the next corner. Luckily, it was clear of walkers. The closest staircase to the roof was just two corridors away. Once they got to the roof, they would be able to barricade it and stay safe.  
  
Umi spun around quickly, drawing her bow at the sound of a loud thud. Her blood turned cold, her eyes widening in horror and terror at what she was looking at. A woman with long grey hair on all fours, the size of a small car stood just behind the small group of students, large chunks of skin and flesh peeling off it’s withered body. It’s feet bent into place, large claws piercing out from each of its toes and fingers, all stained in blood with a few drops dripping from them. Umi shuddered as it looked towards her, a large grin cracking into place on it’s face.  
  
“RU…” Umi’s yell was silenced by the screech unleashed from the beast, watching in panic as two more arms burst out from it’s sides. Within a second or two, it was too quick for Umi to tell, the creature had slashed at the group many times over. Blood, skin and organs splattered across of the walls of the corridor with barely anything left to prove a small group of students were even there.  
  
Umi shuddered again, her grip on the bow loosening. She told that girl to trust her, that she was going to lead her to somewhere safe. Instead, she led her to the slaughter along with others who didn’t deserve it. In Umi’s eyes, their deaths were on her.  
  
Umi looked back towards the creature, flinching as she realised it was staring at her, that terrifying grin on it’s face again.   
  
“DIE!” Umi yelled, firing an arrow towards it. Her eyes widened in horror as it slashed at the air, knocking the arrow away like it was nothing. Umi started stepping back as the creature moved closer, her eyes locked onto it. She knew arrows weren't going to work, or at least when it’s attention was on her. She needed to get away. Get to Honoka.

\---

“The basement is this way, nya.” Rin stated as the four of them walked carefully down the corridor, a few steps away from the staircase they went down. They were surprised that there wasn’t any of the walkers, but none of them wanted to say anything in case they jinxed it. Rin stopped suddenly at the sound of running, not sure what to do.  
  
“What do you think it is?” Maki whispered as she scanned the area around her. The corridor they were on had no doors, nowhere for them to hide.  
  
“Don’t know, nya. But if it’s the walkers, i’ll have to change their name…”  
  
“Shut up, Rin.” Nico stated, irritated at the first year. The four of them stared in the direction of the noise, trying to get themselves ready for whatever was about to turn the corner. They had no idea what to do, but she wasn’t quitting on searching for a way out.  
  
They all jumped in surprise as Umi sprinted around the corner, skidding a little as she continued running for her life towards them. “UP THE STAIRS NOW!”   
  
They all turned looked at her in confusion as she continued running towards them. A second later the a creature appeared behind Umi, crawling quickly after her across the ceiling, blood from Umi’s small group dripping from it’s four of claws.  
  
The four of them looked on in horror, not sure what that thing was. It barely looked like a human anymore. They all gasped as they felt Umi tackle into them with everything she had, barely getting them out the way of the creature’s lunge. Umi hissed in pain as she felt her back grow wet, blood soaking into her clothes. Se thought she had managed to get out of the way with everyone else.  
  
Maki eyes widened in horror at the sight of Umi’s blood and the large slash wound in her back, quickly snapping out of her daze.   
  
“The staircase!” Maki yelled when she stood up with the others close behind her.   
  
Quickly they each grabbed onto Umi, bringing her to her feet as the creature span around on the floor. They fell into the stairwell just as it pounced, crashing against the door Umi slammed shut with her foot.  
  
The four of them watched in fear as the monster clawed at the door for a few seconds, eventually moving away. They couldn’t believe they actually survived that thing, but thanks to Umi they did.  
  
“What the hell was that?!” Nico was the first to ask what everyone else was thinking, turning towards Umi as if she would know. “What...the fuck is even happening?!” Nico voice was shaky. Her entire body was too.  
  
“Nico-chan, calm down…” Maki stood up a minute or two after Nico, resting her hand on the older girl’s shoulder.  
  
Nico span around quickly, knocking the hand off her shoulder in anger. “How the fuck do you expect me to calm down knowing my brother and sisters are out there either dead or terrified?!” Nico bellowed towards Maki, swinging her hand towards the window. The screaming had stopped, but they could still see blood all over the place and smoke coming from the city. “And what about Cocoa?! She’s probably been eaten by-” she was cut off as Maki stormed over to her and drew back her arm, delivering a swift slap to Nico’s cheak, leaving a red hand mark in her wake.  
  
Everyone else looked on in a state of shock at Nico holding her hand against her cheek. Maki let out a long sigh before she pulled Nico close to her, wrapping her arms tightly around her. It wasn’t long before Nico gave in, letting the tears she had been holding back for a while run free. Nico moved closer to the red head, her tears soaking into Maki’s blazer. As much as she would Have loved to keep Nico hanging on her for longer, Maki knew that they still had Umi to worry about. She was still hurt because she saved them.  
  
“Let’s catch our breath in here and head up when we’re ready.” Everyone nodded at Hanayo’s suggestion before she turned her attention back to the chaos happening outside the school. When she wished for everyone to stay together, she didn’t mean during the end of the world.  
  


\---

 

Honoka shuddered as she looked out from the metal fence around the rooftop, towards the burning city she loved living in. She still couldn’t get the sight of her teacher being torn apart out of her head, each time she remembers it she feels like she’s going to throw up. “Why?...” Honoka muttered to herself, her head in her hands. “Why is this happening?”  
  
Honoka sniffled, struggling to hold back her tears anymore. She had no idea if A-Rise were okay, or even if her mother or Yukiho were. She paused, thinking about her younger sister. She hadn’t been seen in a while. The police didn’t have an answer for where she went and now with the dead eating people, she couldn’t help but be even more worried.  
  
She turned at the sound of footsteps approaching. Eli stood a short distance behind her after leaving Kotori, Nozomi and the random girl Kotori dragged along with her talking together.   
  
“How you holding up?”  
  
Honoka didn’t answer immediately, her breath shaky with fear. “Aren’t you worried about Arisa-chan?”  
  
Eli flinched at the sudden question, not realising she didn’t look worried. She had just been trying to act calm in front of everyone so no one panicked. “Of course I’m worried about Arisa. She’s my sister, and it’s killing me that I can’t make sure she’s safe but I’m worried about everyone else too. You included.”  
  
Honoka’s eyes widened at the statement, watching in confusion as sat down on the ground her and everyone else from Muse practiced so hard on. “...Me? I’m fine, just a bit shaken up.”  
  
Eli frowned in irritation at the strange facade Honoka was trying to do. “Stop lying, Kotori told me about what you saw.” Honoka tried to reply quickly, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. “And Arisa told me about Yukiho.”  
  
Honoka turned away. She should have known that Arisa would of told Eli and probably her brother too.  
  
“Honoka…”  
  
“Okay, fine!” Honoka yelled, turning sharply back to Eli. “I’m terrified! Umi-chan, Maki-chan, Nico-chan, Rin-chan AND Hanayo-chan are all god knows where and I don’t know if they’re dead!” Honoka shuddered as she realised what she’d said. She didn’t mean to yell, Eli was one of her best friends, it was just that all of the pressure was getting to her. “I-I’m sorry…”  
  
Honoka froze as Eli jumped up, pulling the orange haired Idol towards her. “It’s okay.” Eli whispered into Honoka’s ear while wrapping her arms tightly around the smaller girl. She had known Honoka would have tried to keep what happened to herself. It wasn’t long before the tears Honoka had been holding flooded thick and fast from her bright blue eyes.  
  
“I just want Yukiho back…” Honoka wept into Eli’s shirt, holding tightly onto her arms. She just wanted things to go back to the way they once were, before everything went to hell.  
  
“UMI-CHAN!” Honoka and Eli jumped at Kotori’s sudden voice, quickly turning around just in time to see Kotori and Nozomi walking quickly over to the door leading to the roof. Hanayo and Rin stood with Maki and Nico to their side, Umi barely standing in between them with her arms hanging onto their shoulders. Honoka froze for a moment, as she spotted a large trail of fresh crimson liquid making the path they had taken.  
  
“Umi-chan! What happened…” Honoka’s blood froze as she looked past her best friend to the thing standing behind her. The creature that chased down Umi before stood behind her, it’s claws ready to swing. “RUN!”  
  
Umi flinched at the sudden order, but quickly remembered why she had yelled the same thing only a short time ago. Without hesitation, she pushed herself forward, knocking herself and the four girls with her onto the roof with a hard thud.  
  
“What the hell Umi?!” Nico barked in anger, looking up off the ground. She barely had a chance to look at the creature again before Nozomi slammed the door shut, pushing herself against it as a barricade. Nico stood up off the floor and quickly rushed over to the other side of the roof with Maki following, looking for something they could use as a barricade instead of Nozomi’s body. If it felt like it, it could probably stab it’s claws through the door and really hurt her. Her eyes rest on a large table they had brought up but forgot to use lying on the ground. It looked like it would be sturdy enough to stop the creature from getting through, the only problem was that it was too heavy for only Maki and herself to move.   
  
“Honoka! Eli! And whoever you are! I need your help with this!” Nico yelled, moving a short distance from the table to see Honoka, Rin, Hanayo, Izetta, Nozomi and Eli all pushing against the door. Honoka, Izetta and Eli all looked back to Nico in concern. They could barely hold the creature back with six of them, if they lost three they might not be able to stop it.  
  
“Go!” Kotori yelled in pain, struggling to hold the door close. “If we don’t block the door...then all this was for nothing!” She spoke quickly, getting nudged back for an instant before she pushed back against the door harder than before.  
  
“No, We can’t just…” Honoka started to argue, not ready to leave her friends to fend for themselves.  
  
“Kotori-senpai’s right, Honoka-senpai!” Izetta interrupted, looking back towards Nico and Maki standing near the table. “If we run we can get the table here before it breaks in.”  
  
“...Damn it, fine!” Honoka growled in anger, the three of them sprinting away from the door and towards Nico and Maki. “Where is it?”  
  
“There!” Maki answered quickly, herself and Nico already holding onto the bottom of the table. Honoka, Eli and Izetta grabbed onto the bottom of the table too. Together, they all started rushing towards the door. Izetta’s eyes widened in horror as she started to notice one of the arms were about to get through a gap between the door it’s frame.  
  
“We need to ram, move out the way!” Kotori turned to Izetta and nodded at her command, moving to the side with Rin and Hanayo just as Izetta and the others slammed the table against the door. The door slammed shut with a large thud, ripping the arm off of the creature as it closed. The creature screamed in pain, it’s cries echoing throughout the school before it sprinted away down the stairs and out of sight.  
  
“What...the hell...was that?!” Honoka asked in a panic, her breath heavy thanks to all the running she was doing. “That thing looked like it came from hell...or Nico-chan’s closet.”  
  
“What?! Why me?!” Nico complained, falling to the floor with everyone else. That was the hardest they had done something in a rather long time. Everyone let out a little giggle before Izetta’s attention shifted to the severed arm of the creature, or more accurate to the strange thing sticking out of it. She frowned, leaning closer towards that looked like it was a name tag.  
  
She could hardly see the name written on the tag because of the blood, but if she concentrated she could read it. “‘BW-Prowler’ what the hell?!” Izetta said to herself before she turned to everyone from Muse. They were all far too exhausted to handle more weirdness so she guessed she would tell them about it later. She didn’t like the fact that the creature had a name tag inside of it. It meant that someone had sent that thing to the school. Whatever the reason, all she knew for sure was that the world she knew was gone.  

 

...To Be Continued.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the likes and reblogs, hope you like this chapter.

The General nodded, taking off his glasses. “Around 24 hours ago, a large organisation known as Genesis released an infection into the general public of Japan.” He answered, watching as for the first time since she’d gotten to the base, Saya was rendered speechless.

“I don’t give a  _ fuck _ about Genesis. My sister is still there!” Saya finally bellowed, getting the attention of the other soldiers around them. She didn’t care about who looked at her or judged her. “I’m going to get my sister out of Japan.”  
  
She turned away from her general, heading towards the helipad. She knew she would be able to get a helicopter there and should be able to fly it to Japan. She just hoped that her squad didn’t look down on her for leaving them. It was her family, her problem.  
  
Saya jumped as a sound she recognized all too well echoed around her. The sound of a gun’s safety being released. She turned slowly around to the origin of the sound, seeing the General pointing a pistol towards her.  
  
“I can’t let you break the quarantine.” The general announced as he looked around, his eyes fixing on two soldiers standing aimlessly around. “You two, arrest her.”  
  
“Yes sir!”  
  
The two soldiers yelled in perfect unison, walking over to Saya. They were about to grab her before they felt something cold tap against the back of their heads.  
  
The General turned slowly around, feeling the same thing behind him. His scowled as Uni stood behind him, the barrel of her pistol pointed at her head.  
  
“Uni?!” Saya questioned in shock as she looked behind the other two soldiers, noticing Raven and Chrom standing behind them doing the same thing as Uni. The three of them were the rest of her squad and beside Izetta, were the people she trusted the most.  
  
Saya scowled as more soldiers arrived with assault rifles in hand, pointing them at Raven, Chrom and Uni.  
  
“Commander, what do you wanna do?” Raven questioned, keeping his finger on the trigger of his pistol. He turned away from the person he was aiming at as soon as he noticed Saya wasn’t replying.  
  
Saya stood looking down the barrel of the pistol held by the General, fear overcoming her. She wasn’t scared that she was going to get hurt. She was scared that she was going to get her squad hurt.  
  
“Arrest them all...and take their weapons away too.” The general commanded, turning away from the four soldiers he hated more than anyone else. He had finally gotten rid of them. Now he could get to his main objective.  
  
\---  
  
Nozomi took in a deep breath as she watched the city she loved burn to ashes. They couldn’t stay on the roof for much longer. Eventually the walkers would break down the door in front of it and if they didn’t, the Prowler would.  
  
She turned to the others who were all in small groups away from each other. She had no idea what to do.  
  
No one was talking, the things they would have seen haunting their thoughts. They were normal students a few hours ago and now a couple of them have actually killed some of the students they use to know. It made them feel sick.  
  
Nozomi closed her eyes, remembering the first walker she saw but mainly what Eli did. She couldn’t stay how she was, timid and weak. She needed to help the others.  
  
“Everyone. Come here.” Everyone turned to Nozomi in confusion as she broke the long lingering silence. Slowly everyone except Izetta walking over to sit down near the purple haired girl.  
  
Izetta turned back towards the door and stared at the one or two walking corpses on the other side. She didn’t know why but the Prowler seemed to not mind other infected getting in the way of it’s attacks.  
  
She let out a sigh, thinking about the small group she was in. She wasn’t one of them, wasn’t their friend. The only reason she was there was because Kotori brought her along. She didn’t want to think about what would of happened to her if she hadn’t met the ashen haired girl.  
  
“That includes you, Izetta-chan.” Nozomi exclaimed, assuming that they were familiar enough for her to use chan instead of san. “You’re one of us now. We need to stick together.”  
  
Izetta blinked blankly before walking to everyone else. She didn’t know what to so. They considered her as one of them. She nodded as she thought herself. Nozomi was right in a way. She guessed it was the living against the dead.  
  
Nozomi looked towards Eli for reassurance before continuing to speak. Ever since she was a kid she would always be the quiet child in the background but after meeting Eli, she had began to gain confidence in herself  
  
“We can’t stay here, on this roof. If we do, we’re just fish in a barrel.” Nozomi exclaimed as she walked back towards the fence, looking down at her plan.  
  
“What do you suggest then?” Umi questioned as she inspected the school’s, well...her bow now. The string was still nice and tight but the main frame of the bow was starting to split. She wasn’t really sure how long it was going to last.  
  
She turned her attention to the number of arrows she had left. She had been trying to pull the arrows out of any of the walkers she killed on the way with the only exception being if they were surrounded and the Prowler.  
  
“Down at the main gate is an empty school bus. Now I know that the principle…” Nozomi stopped talking and turned to Kotori, only just realising that her mother could either be a walker or eaten. “S-she...doesn’t matter. We can think of another…”  
  
“It’s okay, Nozomi-chan. You don’t have to change the plan because of me. I know my mother is dead.” Kotori hung her head as she trying to forget about what happened when she went to visit her mother. “Thank you, but please continue…”  
  
“Don’t give up hope, Kotori-chan!” Honoka added as she stood up, turning towards her best friend with a clenched fist. “Your mother is strong. She must still be alive…”  
  
“She isn’t, Honoka-chan. Please…” Kotori pleaded softly as she held her shaky hand, trying her best to stop the tears from starting.  
  
Izetta quickly noticed the tears starting to build at the corner of Kotori’s eyes despite how hard she was holding them back. “Honoka-senpai, could you drop it already…”  
  
“Why wouldn’t she be?” Honoka questioned as she smiled at her best friend. “She knows how to…”  
  
“Because I KILLED her!” Kotori yelled as she stood up, tears flooding thick and fast down her rosy cheeks. She winced as her mind instinctively started thinking about it again.  
  
\---  
  
_ “Mother?” Kotori questioned as she opened the door to her mother’s office door slowly, taking a step inside. She hadn’t heard anything from her mother in a very long time. She left Izetta to fill out a form in the student council room and went to check on her mother, expecting to find her buried under paperwork. Her eyes widened as she looked around the room.  
  
The room was in ruins. Tables flipped, papers scattered across the floor, blood dripping from the wall behind where her mother’s desk should be. She froze as she looked around the room, not sure what to think. Maybe her mother was pulling some kind of prank on her?  
  
Kotori jumped as something strong slammed into the side of her, knocking her to the ground. She winced at the pain, looking back towards where she had been standing. Her eyes widened as she realised what had knocked her to the ground.  
  
Her mother stood over her, half of her jaw hanging off her face with only a few muscles still holding it on. Her gray suit was ripped open, putting her rib cage and intestines on display.  
  
Kotori flinched, moving her head just in time as her mother’s leg slammed down onto ground where her head was. Kotori looked at the leg, feeling like she was going to be sick. The leg was barely held together with all the muscles and tissue hanging off.  
  
“Mom! It’s me, step out of it!” Kotori pleads went unanswered as she stood up from the floor, barely having any time to react before she was slammed against the flipped desk by her mother, thrown onto the floor with ease. “MOM!”  
  
Kotori tried to push herself back with her feet, her eyes widening as her hand hit something metal. She didn’t have time to even look at what she’d found before she had to use it. Her mother lunged at her, her mouth unhinged like a snake as she fell towards Kotori.  
  
“STOP, MOM!” Kotori yelled, tears flooding thick and fast down her cheeks as she held up what she found. Her eyes widened in horror as she realised she picked up a letter opener with the blade sticking upwards. Her stomach plummeted as the blade pierced her mother’s skull, her mother’s eyes rolling into the back of her head as her body fell limp.  
  
“MOM!” Kotori cried out, her mother’s blood now covering her face and clothes. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” She yelled, banging her fist down onto her mother’s chest.  
  
_ \---  
  
Izetta glanced over at Kotori who was standing by the school fence on her own. After she’d told everyone what had happened with her mother, she’d moved away from everyone so she could think.  
  
“Hey.” Izetta flinched as someone tapped her on her back. A second later Eli took a seat next to her. “You’re Izetta, right?”  
  
Izetta nodded at the question, returning her gaze to Kotori. She couldn’t even imagine what Kotori must be going through. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to help her. If it wasn’t for Kotori, she probably wouldn’t be alive.  
  
A small smile tugged at Eli’s lips as she noticed the way Izetta was looking at Kotori. It reminded her of how she looked at Nozomi.  
  
The two sat in silence as Eli looked back to Nozomi, wondering how different things would be if she’d done what she’d wanted to do long ago and asked Nozomi out. Maybe they would actually be dating.  
  
Nozomi turned around, smiling happily as she noticed Eli’s eyes resting on her. She knew Eli would always be watching over her but she didn’t want to be the damsel in distress anymore. She wanted to help.  
  
Nozomi turned to everyone and let out a deep sigh. “Everyone!” she exclaimed loudly, getting everyone's attention again. Slowly, everyone returned to gather around Nozomi, waiting to hear what the usually quiet girl was going to say. “We need four of us to go get the keys, preferably the fastest among us. I won’t force anyone…”  
  
“I’ll go.” Everyone looked up in surprise as Izetta stepped forward.  
  
She took in a deep breath, feeling like she had to prove to everyone else but mostly herself that she could help. That she wasn’t a liability.  
  
“I’m not letting you go alone. I’ll go too.” Izetta froze as Kotori stepped forward too. She looked down at the ashen haired girl’s hands, noticing immediately that they were shaking.  
  
“No. I won’t let you go through that again!” Izetta replied seriously. She knew she wasn’t good at much but at least she was going to make sure Kotori didn’t have to see her mother’s body again.  
  
“I’ll be fine.” Kotori said softly, her hand locking with Izetta’s. “I’ve got you with me.”  
  
Izetta looked down with bright red cheeks, squeezing Kotori’s hand just to check that she wasn’t dreaming.  
  
“Oh my god, stop flirting. I’m going too.” Nico stepped forward with her arms crossed. “I’ve got something I want to check out in the Principle’s office too.”  
  
Maki turned to the smaller girl with worry in her eyes. She grabbed her own hand, trying to keep it from shaking. She had to be strong. She believed in Nico.  
  
“I’m going too, nya.” Rin announced, stepping forward. ‘I’m really fast, nya. I lapped Hanayo like 5 times...you know...before the end of the world.”  
  
Hanayo looked on in worry as Rin started walking toward the door. She waved as Rin turned to her, forcing a fake smile. She knew how Rin got when she was serious about something. All she could do was wait.  
  
Everyone watched as Nozomi quickly opened the door, letting the four of them out before she closed the door behind them. Like it or not, they were on their own until they got back.  
  
\---  
  
Kotori stopped short of the next corridor, moving to the side of the wall with Izetta, Nico and Rin joining her. She could hear the walkers down the corridor, a small group of them eating what she could only guess was another one of the students from the school. She knew she shouldn’t be thinking it but maybe it was someone she knew.  
  
She looked across the corridor towards her mother’s office, the memories of everything that happened quickly coming back to her. She couldn’t believe what had happened to everything she loved.  
  
“Go.” Nico spoke softly, tapping Kotori from the crouched position she was in. She was wondering what was taking Kotori so long to move so she knelt down and peeked past her. The small group of infected were looking away from them, stuffing intestines into their unhinged mouths like it was an open buffet.  
  
Kotori nodded, reluctantly leading the three girls into her mother’s office before closing the door behind them. She waited for a moment, resting her head on the door as she prepared herself to see her mother’s body again.  
  
“Kotori-senpai!” Izetta yelled, noticing something moving towards Kotori from the dark corner. She reached towards the older student quickly, yanking her back and out the way of what she guessed was Kotori’s Mother’s decaying body.  
  
Kotori fell onto the floor beside Izetta with wide eyes, noticing the letter opener still protruding from her mother’s head. It must not have gone in fully. She didn’t actually kill her mother but as much as she hated herself for thinking it, she wished she had. Now Izetta, Rin and Nico were all in danger too.  
  
Nico quickly turned to the flipped desk, looking for what the rumors said Kotori’s mother had in her drawer. The only problem was that it was locked. She started pulling as hard as she could on the locked drawer with Rin helping her. They needed what was hopefully inside.  
  
Kotori’s mother twisted her head to face Izetta but mainly towards her daughter, as if there was still a little bit of personality inside her. The only difference was that instead of loving her daughter the most, she wanted to eat her more than anyone else.  
  
Kotori moved back across the floor, her eyes widening in horror as Izetta stepped toward her mother. She didn’t have a second to react before Izetta slammed her foot as hard as she could onto the letter opener piercing Kotori’s mother’s head, sticking it further into her head.  
  
Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked on towards the younger student in a state of shock. Kotori’s mother fell back against the wall, pinned to it by the letter opener.  
  
Izetta let out a relieved sigh as she turned to Kotori, feeling guilty that the ashen haired girl had to see her mother die for a second time.  
  
“I’m sorry…” Izetta flinched when Kotori stumbled off the floor, wrapping Izetta in a tight embrace.  
  
Izetta face went flushed as she noticed tears running down Kotori’s cheeks. She assumed that Kotori would be close to breaking down and because Honoka wasn’t there for her to hug, she didn’t mind being a substitute. “I guess I paid back you saving me, hmm?”  
  
“You know how to fight?!” Nico questioned in disbelief, standing up with Rin continuing to try and open the draw.  
  
Izetta nodded with Kotori still holding onto her. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like watching her mother die twice. She hoped she never would “Of course I do. My sister and her squad taught me Krav Maga.”  
  
Rin smiled as she watched the two girls hugging. She then started thinking about what Nozomi and Eli had. Even though they thought that they were being secretive about their feelings, they were wrong. Anyone could tell how much they cared about each other.  
  
She flinched as something jolted in her hands, looking down to her hands to notice the draw she was holding cracked out of place. She assumed that the lock wasn’t a very good lock if she could just yank it open. “It opened, Nya.”  
  
“Nice.” Nico stated happily, tapping Rin on the shoulder as she knelt down beside the orange haired idol. “And the rumors were...true.”  
  
Kotori frowned in confusion as she turned to Nico, letting go of Izetta. Her eyes widened when Nico pulled out a small box, opening it to reveal a western style revolver with what looked like 6 bullets next to it. From the angle she was looking at it, she was lucky she could even see the gun.  
  
Nico picked up the gun, trying to pull the chamber out. It was her first time handling a gun so she had no idea what she was doing.  
  
“Hand it to me, Nico-senpai.” Izetta walked quickly over Nico, holding her hand out for the gun.  
  
Nico scoffed, handing the gun over to the younger student. She didn’t know why, but she loved it when she was called senpai. Maybe it was because she was always being called little and mistaken for a first year. “Careful, it’s not a toy.”  
  
“I know. My sister taught me how to use guns.” Izetta replied quickly, examining the revolver. She was surprised to see that a gun that had hardly been used like that one didn’t have any rust on it. “Also, Nico-senpai. You need to unlock the cylinder handle before you can move it to the side.” She hummed to herself as she did what she said, surprised to see the six bullet cylinder was full.  
  
“You can fight  _ and _ you know how to use guns. Are you a witch? Is there anything you can’t do?” Nico questioned sarcastically as she glanced towards Kotori’s mother dead body.  
  
Izetta blinked blankly a few time before answering with an innocent smile. “I can’t speak french and I’m pretty sure I’m not a witch.”  
  
Kotori couldn’t help but let a smile tug at her lips before she immediately remembered her mother was pinned to the wall behind her.  
  
Kotori turned to her mother's body, wondering three things. She wondered why her mother had a gun to begin with, If her mother knew how to use a gun and why she didn’t use it against one of the walkers?  
  
\---  
  
Eli leaned against the chain fence surrounding the roof, glancing between the horde of walkers below and the window of Kotori’s mother’s office. She heard footsteps behind her and turned quickly to see Nozomi standing with her hands clasped behind her back.    
  
“Hi, Elichi.” Nozomi greeted, joining the blonde next to the fence. She knew what Eli was doing when she looked at the walkers. “Arisa isn’t one of them. I’m sure she’s perfectly fine.”  
  
A smile tugged at Eli’s lips. She wasn’t surprised Nozomi knew exactly what she was doing. Sometimes she was sure that Nozomi knew her better than she knew herself.  
  
Eli nodded, leaning to the side so her head fell softly onto Nozomi’s shoulder. She knew that there was still a chance that Arisa was alive. She was glad Nozomi never let her forget it.  
  
“Do you remember when we went to that theme park?” Eli frowned in confusion before she remembered. It was two or three weeks after they became second years so they decided to celebrate it at the theme park.  
  
“I remember you not taking no for an answer.” Eli replied with a smile, wondering what happened to that theme park. She assumed it would be overrun with walkers by now.  
  
“Well, I remember you getting lost when trying to find the toilets.” Nozomi chuckled to herself as she watched Eli groan in embarrassment.  
  
“Don’t remind me…”  
  
“It was funny hearing my name called over the speaker followed by ‘we have something belonging to you.’ Hmm.” Nozomi hummed before she noticed Eli’s attention had shifted.  
  
Eli’s eyes widened as she noticed something clawing its way up the side of the building, crashing it’s claws into the wall so it could pull itself up. The Prowler, now with one less arm thanks to Izetta’s quick thinking.  
  
“Maki! Get Umi and Hanayo ready!” Eli yelled as she felt something move quickly past her.  
  
Umi threw her bow onto the small building with the stairs going down, jumping onto the side quickly after. She pulled herself up as best she could with her back still stinging from the cuts caused by the Prowler.  
  
“Umi! What are you doing?!” Honoka yelled with worry lacing her voice, stopping below the blue haired girl. She looked on in a state of shock and fear as Umi aimed towards the Prowler, drawing the bow back.  
  
“HEY!” Umi bellowed, getting her voice as loud as she could so the Prowler looked towards her. She knew she only had one shot at helping Kotori and the others.  
  
She took a deep breath before releasing the string, her bow finally breaking as the arrow flew through the sky.  
  
Honoka stood in awe as the arrow struck the Prowler’s right eye, making it scream out in pain and fall from the wall.  
  
Maki rushed over to the fence, wondering if it was dead. It fell from the third floor so she hoped it was.  
  
“We need to go meet up with the others, now.” Honoka spoke seriously, feeling like that monster wasn’t dead. Now it knew where they were. If it wanted to, it could climb over the fence and kill them all.  
  
Everyone nodded as they rushed to door, yanking the table away. This was their last chance to survive. They were either going to get onto the bus and leave, or be ripped apart by the walkers or the Prowler.  
  
\---  
  
Nico rushed back from the window, grabbing the keys for the bus hanging on the wall. “We gotta go,  _ right _ now. That thing’s scream would have attracted a lot of the walkers.”  
  
“Follow me. If I’m right, I’m sure the others are on their way so we can meet them halfway.” Izetta suggested quickly, opening the door with Nico, Kotori and Rin close behind.  
  
Kotori stopped for a second before she left the room, looking to the side at her mother. She hoped her mother was in a better place and that she could forgive her.  
  
Kotori joined the three girls outside, noticing immediately that Nico was right. A huge horde of walkers shuffled their decaying bodies down towards the source of the noise.  
  
Rin’s eyes widened as she noticed something strange behind the walkers. A set of 3 or 4 walkers suddenly let out an  inhuman cry before they bolted from the horde, charging towards the humans like a bat out of hell.  
  
“We gotta run, nya!” Rin exclaimed before the four of them began sprinting as down the corridor towards the staircase.  
  
Nico looked back for a moment, noticing the three infected girls charging behind them. She knew the three girls, each one use to be apart of the Idol appreciation group for a while before Honoka and everyone else joined. The three of then could barely run for the bus on time, yet they were sprinting after her and the others like an olympic runner.  


Their names were Miki, Sara and Kyoko and she considered them friends. It pained her to see people she use to enjoy being around as infected.  
  
Izetta looked behind her, her eyes widening in fear. Rin was in front of her with Kotori to her side and Nico lagging behind. The only problem was that the infected was starting to catch up to third year.  
  
She considered using the revolver, but it would be useless. By the time she shot one, the other two would of caught Nico and killed her.  
  
“Nico! Duck!”  
  
Nico dropped to the floor at the sudden familiar voice, flinching as she noticed Maki swinging a metal pipe towards where she had been.  
  
Maki hit the first infected, the impact ripping the top half of the infected head off. Blood, bone and brain matter coating the floor as the other two ran towards the redhead.  
  
Umi and Eli moved in front, using two of the arrows Umi had remaining to stab the infected in the eyes and through their brains.  
  
Maki looked towards the infected she’d killed, feeling everything she recently ate trying to come back up her throat. She actually killed someone.  
  
She looked towards Eli and Umi, looking to see if they were feeling the same as she was. Even though Umi had killed more of them than Eli, they both looked equally sickened by what they did.  
  
“Good. I’m glad we found you…” Kotori jumped as Honoka leaped onto her from the staircase, wrapping her in a tight embrace.  
  
“Thank god you’re safe.” Honoka whispered into Kotori’s ear, tightening her grip on her friend.  
  
“Not for much longer if we stay here like this!” Nico announced, looking back at the end of the hallway. She wasn’t surprised to see the horde quickly closing the gap between them.  
  
“Looks like there isn’t anymore of the sprinters, nya.” Rin added as everyone started running in one group.  
  
Nico let out a long sigh at Rin still naming the infected. What she found even more annoying was the name she picked. Sprinters? It was so generic. She let out another sigh in defeat, knowing that everyone was going to call them that anyway.  
  
Honoka happened to gance to her sides, noticing the blood and bodies in the classrooms as they went past. They couldn’t stay in the school anymore, not with all the infected around.  
  
\---  
  
“There it is.” Nozomi whispered as she creeped to the main door, surprised to see the area near the only school bus the school had was completely vacant of walkers.  
  
Blood still covered the ground and bodies were scattered around but there were no walkers in sight.  
  
Honoka paused as she looked towards the main gate and to one of the bodies. Her gym teacher’s torn open carcass still laid on the floor.  
  
He was the first person she saw get eaten and she assumed he wasn’t going to be the last.  
  
Eli frowned as the group walked slowly towards the bus. She didn’t trust that there wasn’t any walkers near them. “I don't like this. It’s too...quiet.”  
  
“It’s too spoopy.” Rin added, turning around to see everyone looking at her in irritation or confusion. “Nya?”  
  
“You’re not allowed to talk for the rest of the day.” Maki exclaimed as everyone nodded in agreement, returning to slowly making their way to the bus.  
  
Nico got to the bus first, unlocking the door quickly. She had to agree with Eli. It was far too easy to get to the bus and she doubt every single infected was drawn to the Prowler’s scream.  
  
She sat down in the driver's seat, turning to the side in anger when she heard snickering from the others waiting outside. She was too small to see over the steering wheel or reach the pedals.  
  
“Do you want us to get you some books, Nico-senpai?” Izetta questioned, not sure why everyone else was laughing. “I think two big books would be enough for you to see over.”  
  
“Or ten.” Eli retorted with a smile on her face, still looking around to make sure none of the infected could sneak up on them.  
  
“We’ll have to tie some to her shoes as well so she can reach the pedals.” Nozomi added, looking towards everyone else. The only ones who weren’t laughing were Nico and Izetta who was still confused about what was happening  
  


“Shut up!” Nico yelled in irritation, moving to the bottom step of the bus.  
  
“Nico move!” Maki yelled, diving towards the smaller girl and tackling her to the ground. They landed with a hard thud next to Umi and Kotori who both quickly helped the pair up.  
  
Everyone looked on in horror as they watched the Prowler tear it’s way through the school bus towards them with an eye and an arm still missing.  
  
Umi and Izetta jumped as the Prowler suddenly twisted it’s head toward them, anger raging behind it’s dead remaining eye.  
  
Everyone else looked on still in a state of shock at the two halves of the bus. Their only chance of escaping had just been ripped apart like it was made of paper. What hope did they have now.

  
The Prowler hopper off the wreckage of the bus, letting out a blood curdling cry that echoed throughout the entire school. It wasn’t long before the walkers slowly started to shuffle out of the school at different sides, circling everyone.  
  
The Prowler got low to the floor, ready to lunge towards Izetta and Umi mostly. It remembered who were the ones that took it’s arm and eye.  
  
Nobody had time to do anything as it leaped towards them with the sound of an engine in the background. The Prowler got to an inch of Umi before something large rammed into the side of it, pinning it to the ground.  
  
“Nozomi!”  
  
Nozomi snapped out of her state of shock at the familier voice, looking toward the what looked like a riot van used by the police. Her eyes widened as her father swung the door open, a baseball bat in hand.  
  
“Dad?!” Nozomi questioned with happiness in her voice. She thought they were all going to die. She thought he was dead. “Everyone in the van!”  
  
Nozomi opened the side door as the walkers started to get closer. Slowly, everyone got in leaving Izetta and Umi outside.  
  
Izetta started using the revolver, letting off shots at the walkers heads. They dropped to the ground one by one as they backed towards the van.  
  
“Hurry up!” Nozomi’s dad yelled, felling the Prowler starting to lift the front of the van. He knew it wouldn’t stay under the van for much longer.  
  
“Go!” Izetta exclaimed, slambing the side door shut just as the walkers got close. Nozomi’s dad smiled, slamming his foot onto the gas pedal.  
  
Honoka watched from the back window as the school got further and further away. They made it out but she couldn’t help thinking about everyone who didn’t. It didn’t feel like a victory for her.  
  
Izetta looked at the revolver, checking the bullets. She only shot three times, nine bullets still remaining. Three in the chamber and six in her pocket.  
  
“Where’s mom?” Nozomi looked through the small hole to the driver's seat, noticing her father's smile fade away. His expression answered her question perfectly clearly. She couldn’t believe her mother was gone. “H-how?”  
  
“One of them grabbed her before we managed to get the van. I tried to get her back, even managed to grab onto her hand...but...more grabbed onto her, pulling her away....” Her father trailed, needing to take breaks to vent out his anger. He was angry at the walkers definitely but he was mainly angry at himself. He should have made sure she was safe. “I failed h…”  
  
“That’s not true.”  
  
Everyone paused as Eli spoke up for the first time in a while, looking to Nozomi’s father for some kind of reply.  
  
Nozomi quickly noticed her father wasn’t replying but she could see in the mirror that his bottom lip was trembling, tears running down his face.  
  
Eli closed her eyes as she remembered when she visited Nozomi at her house to give her some homework she forgot once. She could clearly remember how nice Nozomi’s mother was. She wished everything could be as simple as it was back then.  
  
“I think she’ll be proud of you. You saved us all, saved Nozomi.” Eli explained with a smile, looking to her side and towards Nozomi. She could see that Nozomi was trying to keep her grief at bay, still wanting to make it look like she was okay.  
  
Nozomi let out a content smile as Eli rested her hand on the purple haired girl, moving closer to her on the seats.  
  
Eli’s smile faded quickly once she glanced out the window. The infection looked like it was happening everywhere at once. She couldn’t help but think about Arisa and her parents. If they were still alive. All she could do was hope.  
  
\---  
  
Arisa stopped short of the end of the back alley, still holding onto Yukiho’s sleeve in fear but mainly so she didn’t lose her. She didn’t have any idea what was going on. First she and Yukiho were walking together in the shopping district, waiting for their sisters to be finished with their school for the day when everyone started freaking out.  
  
Yukiho looked down still in a state of shock at what she was saw. A woman leaped over a shop counter, tearing her way through the shopkeeper’s chest to his heart and lungs, sicking her teeth into them like a child with cotton candy.  
  
She turned to her side and towards Arisa, surprised by how her best friend was acting. Most of the time the roles would be reversed. She would normally be the one taking charge with Arisa being the one frozen with fear. It was strange seeing the roles reversed.  
  
Arisa moved around the corner slowly, quickly backing up at a small group of infected at the end of the alley. They were trapped. It was only a matter of time before the infected wandered down the alley and find them.  
  
Arisa shuddered as she returned the way they came from, noticing another group loitering around there too. She didn’t know what to do. “Onee-chan…”  
  
“Don’t give up!”  
  
Arisa flinched as she felt Yukiho grab onto her shoulders, turning her towards her. She knew Yukiho was trying to act confident but she could feel her best friend shaking through her shoulders. “We can get out of this!”  
  
“HEY!”  
  
Arisa and Yukiho span around quickly at the sound of something large crashing into the small group near them. They peaked around the corner with Yukiho’s head below Arisa’s so she could see.  
  
A black van stopped at the end of the alley with a man at the side door dressed in standard military attire.  
  
“Get In!” The man yelled as he grabbed an assault rifle, letting off a clip or two at the surrounding infected.  
  
Yukiho quickly grabbed Arisa’s hand, rushing into the black van with the man short behind. Inside the van was another two men dressed in the same kind of military attire as the first man.  
  
“Thanks, I didn’t know how we were going to get out of that.” Yukiho exclaimed happily, waiting for any of the three men to reply as the van started moving again. She looked quickly to Arisa, noticing her staring at the three men but mainly their clothing.  
  
Arisa continued to watch the man closely, feeling like something was off about them. Her eyes widened as she realised what it was, quickly pulling Yukiho closer towards her.  
  
“Yukiho. These men aren’t apart of the military.” Arisa whispered to her friend, making sure she was quiet enough so they didn’t hear her.  
  
She remembered when her brother went into the army and she saw the uniform. The ones they were waring were completely different.“Their uniforms are wrong.”  
  
“The blonde one’s smart.”  
  
Arisa flinched as she heard one of them say, barely having any time to react before a fist hit her in the face, knocking her out.  
  
“What the…” Yukiho tried to say before the same thing happened to her.  
  
The men took off their fake military helmets and looked towards the driver seat. “These two will make good experiments. They might turn out better than BW-Prowler.”  
  
...TBC

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos and comments, hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

The drive to the ‘safe haven’ Nozomi’s dad mentioned felt like it was an eternity for everyone in the van. Nozomi looked down at her phone, an image of her mother on the screen. She couldn’t believe that she was never going to see her mother again. She didn’t really know what she was feeling but the best way she could describe it was that she felt empty.

Eli didn’t fail to notice what Nozomi was looking at though she stayed back.  She didn’t have any idea how to help her best friend through the hard time she was going through. She wished with every part of her being that she could help but she couldn’t.

“We’re…here.”

Honoka turned around on her seat, looking out the small window. She couldn’t really see where they were it looked they were entering a complex of some kind. “What is…this place?”

“It’s called Fort Yamato, given it’s name for how many times the Yamato would dock here.” Nozomi’s dad answered as he slowed the van to a stop inside of the garage. He stepped out of the van, opening the side door so everyone else could get out.

Eli stepped out, immediately noticing a pair of off road black motorbikes in the garage next to where they’d parked. She wondered why an army base so close to the sea would have any need for off road bikes. Only skilled drivers would be able to drive a motorbike through the dense forests in front and to the sides of the military base.

“Where…is everyone?” Kotori questioned as she looked around. She expected to see a few soldiers around but the only other person there was Nozomi’s father. “Are we the only ones here?”

“There’s a scientist here too who was apparently working with the army but besides him, yes.” Nozomi’s dad answered, turning back to the ten girls.

“Wait!” Honoka questioned as she suddenly realised what had been said. She looked around for a moment. “So my sister and parents aren’t even here?!”

Nozomi’s dad looked down at Honoka’s question. He understood why she was so upset. If the sides were flipped and he had a sister out there in the walker filled cities, he would be trying everything he could to get them back. “No…they aren’t.”

Kotori watched Honoka in concern. She had never seen her act like she was now and for the first time since she knew the orange haired girl, she had no idea what Honoka was going to do. “Honoka…”

“Then I have to go back out there.” Honoka announced in a serious tone, making her way to the motorbikes she noticed when she’d gotten off the van. She knew it was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done going back into that hell and she didn’t know if she would even make it to her home but she had to try, she owed it to her family to at least try.

Eli was about to follow before Nico stepped in front of Honoka, glaring at their ‘leader’. She didn’t even realise anyone else had noticed the bikes, nevermind Honoka. Most of the time Honoka was always too empty headed, acting before thinking.

“Move out the way Nico-chan.” Honoka ordered, stopping in front of the shorter girl. “I don’t care if I have to go through you, I’m going to get Yukiho.”

“Oh, I would love to see you try, or you could shut the fuck up and listen.” Nico looked past her towards Eli, noticing she was hesitating to stop Honoka. She knew why too. She bet that Eli thought that if Honoka found Yukiho, Arisa would be with her.

Nozomi took a step forward, noticing Nico holding something in her hand. She could barely tell what it was because of how Nico was holding it but it looked like a piece of paper. “Nicocchi…”

“If you go out there by yourself, you’ll DIE!” Nico explained in a angry tone. “You don’t think I understand what you’re going through? Hell, ll I had an episode in the school’s goddamn stairwell about me not being able to get to my brother and sisters.”

Honoka looked down, a feeling of guilt washing over her. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten that Nico and Eli both had sisters or brothers still in the city. “Nico-chan, I…”

“Not done, shut up.” Nico held up her finger, almost like a teacher would before she looked around to the motorbikes she assumed Honoka was going to try to get on. “Right now the best thing you can do for them is to make sure this place is safe for them coming back.”

“Everyone calm down!” Kotori bellowed, moving in between the two girls. “We’re all on edge at the moment. We just need some rest.”

“How can I…” Honoka trailed off, noticing Nico still glaring at her. It was clear she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Nico there. “Fine…maybe you’re right.”

“Come on, I’ll show you where the barracks are. You can decide what rooms you want.”  Nozomi’s dad added as he started to walk away with everyone else following him.

Honoka trailed behind, looking at the bikes in the garage. She needed to do something but what could she do? Doing nothing was worse than failing.

—

“Come on, come on.” Honoka muttered to herself as she tried to pull back on the grips of the motorcycle to start it. All she got in response was a loud revving, just like she had a moment ago. She quickly stopped what she was doing. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself. She needed to get away from the base and she didn’t want anyone to know.  
  
Determined to find a way out, she had left the others sleeping and crept around the base. Fortunately for her, someone had carelessly left the key for the bikes in the ignitions.  
  
“Have you pulled the clutch in?”  
  
Honoka gasped, the sudden voice almost causing her to tilt right off the motorcycle. She looked toward the doorway she had entered through, finding a familiar blonde walking toward her. “E-Eli-chan! What are you doing in here?”  
  
“Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing.” Eli said, raising an eyebrow. She stopped next to Honoka and reached over, turning off the ignition. “Are you going somewhere?”  
  
“N-No…” Honoka stuttered guiltily. She relented at Eli’s skeptical look. “Fine, I was going to see if I could find Yukiho and my parents. They’re still out there somewhere and I’m worried about them! Nobody’s even searching for them.”  
  
“I’m worried about my parents and Arisa too. But I know I can’t go out there alone. And neither should you.” Eli watched as Honoka’s shoulders slumped in defeat. She gently placed a hand there, giving a light squeeze. “We need you here, safe. How would Umi feel if you ran off?”  
  
Honoka heaved a sigh. She knew Eli was right but she couldn’t stand the thought of her parents and Yukiho being out there with those things. Anything could have been happening to them. Or could have already happened to them.  
  
“I can’t just stay here and do nothing.” Honoka mumbled, her eyes prickling with tears. “I feel so helpless, Eli-chan. I don’t know what to do.”  
  
“I know.” Eli took Honoka’s hands and helped her off of the motorcycle before giving her a hug. She felt Honoka clutch the back of her shirt tightly. “We’ll figure something out, I promise. We just need a plan before we do anything. Getting yourself killed isn’t going to help anyone.”  
  
“Why is she going to get herself killed?”  
  
Honoka and Eli looked toward the doorway to see Umi standing there. She was leaning down ever so slightly due to the wounds on her back but other than that she seemed fine now that her back had been bandaged.  
  
Honoka gave a nervous laugh and stepped away from Eli. “Me? I’m not, don’t worry about me, Umi-chan.”  
  
“I am worried.” Umi’s eyes flitted to Eli who quickly averted her gaze. “Why are you crying? And why are you both in the garage? Eli?”  
  
“Don’t ask me.” Eli mumbled, grimacing at the idea of revealing something Honoka might not want Umi to know.  
  
“I was talking about leaving so I could go and find my family.” Honoka said honestly. She didn’t want to lie to Umi even if her girlfriend wouldn’t be happy about it. “I need to do something, Umi-chan.”  
  
Umi frowned at the thought of Honoka going out there alone. “I know how you feel. But we’re not allowed to leave the base. It’s for our own safety, Honoka. It’s not safe out there.” She watched as Honoka looked away, her lower lip trembling. “Maybe our parents are fine. They might have found somewhere safe to hide out. Like we did.”  
  
Honoka nodded silently though she wasn’t convinced.  
  
Umi opened her mouth to say something else but she didn’t know how she was meant to comfort Honoka. She was sure she would just make the situation worse.  
  
“I-I just need to do something.” Honoka said shakily after a moment of silence.  
  
Eli glanced at Umi before her gaze resettled on Honoka. “Maybe we can convince Nozomi’s dad to let us go on a supply run. At least we’ll be doing something.”  
  
“I guess.” Honoka mumbled, still somewhat downcast. “But who would go?”

“Well Eli and myself can go, you can too…oh, and that new girl Izetta too.” Umi replied thoughtfully.  
  
“Come on, I’ll teach you how to drive one of these things. Or how to start it at least.” Eli said encouragingly. She nodded for Honoka to get back on the bike. “Go ahead.”  
  
“Eli.” Umi said, her tone a little disapproving.  
  
Eli glanced toward Umi. “Don’t worry, I’m just showing her. Just in case. She’s not going to go anywhere without us. You promise not to, right Honoka?”  
  
“Yeah.” Honoka, who was straddling the bike again, looked up. “I promise.”  
  
“I’ll be in our room if you need me then.” Umi still looked worried but she turned around, heading back out of the garage.  
  


—

“I’ll be fine, Kotori-senpai. I have Honoka-senpai with me.” Izetta exclaimed for the third time as she walked over to the motorbike Honoka and herself would be using, getting onto it.

“I know…but stay safe, and keep Honoka-chan safe too. I don’t want to lose anyone else.” Kotori rested her hand on Izetta’s shoulder with a soft smile.

“Umi-chan and Eli-chan already left.”

Kotori and Izetta turned at the familiar voice, noticing Honoka walking into the garage. “Are you driving, Izetta-chan?”

“Umm, I will if you want.”

“Okay. I can keep an eye out for Yukiho.” Honoka replied as she took a seat on the bike behind Izetta.

“Ah!” Izetta flinched as she felt Honoka’s arm go around her waist. “Honoka-senpai?”

“What’s wrong?” Honoka questioned with a tilt of her head, noticing Izetta’s blushing cheeks. “Oh, do you mind if I hold onto you like this?”

“No, it’s fine. It was just unexpected.” Izetta nodded before she started the engine, looking back to Kotori. She could clearly see how much Kotori was worried even though she was trying to hide it. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. Bye for now.”

“Bye!” Kotori yelled as she waved, watching the two drive away out the main gate. She didn’t know what she would do if she lost her best friend and her new friend.

“Kotori! Think fast!”

Kotori turned quickly at the sound of Nico’s voice, barely able to catch the sandbag flying towards her. She caught it with both hands, falling backwards onto the floor with a thud.

Nico walked over with another sandbag in her hand. “You were not prepared, my bad.”

“Ow…”

—

Umi scanned the area, carefully sitting on the back of the bike with her arms around Eli’s waist, making sure that she didn’t miss anything even though they were going pretty fast. She had never been on a bike before but she had to admit that the feeling of the wind blowing against her face and through her hair felt really nice.

Eli slowed down as they got to a crossing, still surprised that they’d only run into a few walkers. She’d expected much more.

“Wait!”

Eli braked hard, skidding a little at Umi’s voice. She turned around to her in irritation. “What? We don’t have time to waste.”

“I’ll be back in a second. I saw something I’m gonna need.” Umi quickly hopped off the bike, knowing she was leaving a less than happy Eli waiting for her.

“Umi!” Eli gritted her teeth, watching as Umi ran into what looked like a run down sports shop. She let out a sigh as she turned the engine off, noticing the candy shop adjacent the one Umi entered. She was tempted to enter it and see if she could get something nice to lift the group’s spirits, while she waited for Umi but she decided against it. If any walkers suddenly appeared they would be stuck.

“Done.” Umi announced quietly, walking out with a large beige backpack full of supplies on her back. “I thought we might need more food and water for the base so I got quite a lot of canned food as well as bottled water.”

“That’s not apparently all.” Eli retorted, glancing to the black compound bow in Umi’s hands and the leather quiver on her back.

“What? Mine broke and we don’t have a weapon.” Umi pointed out as she returned to the bike, sitting on the back.

“True…but we’re not scavengers, Umi. We need to be carefu…”

Eli trailed off once she noticed the large bar of chocolate Umi was holding up in her spare hand.  
  
“What was that, Eli?”

Eli took in a deep breath before her facade broke and a smile appeared. “I said nothing, thank you.”

Umi grinned as Eli plucked the bar of chocolate from her hand, placing it in one of the pocket on her jeans. She knew Eli’s favourite food was chocolate and that it would make her forget about the little ‘shopping trip’ as Umi wanted to call it even though she knew it was technically stealing.

“We’re close to my house, hold on.” Eli reved of the engine once, starting it quickly because of the little time it was off.

Eli started driving again, turning the corner before she picked up the pace. She didn’t know why but she was suddenly filled with fear for her family. She knew her brother was out of Japan so he was fine but not knowing where Arisa or her parents were was almost making her sick.

Eli slowed down as she reached the street she lived on, coming to a stop just outside her house. The first thing she noticed was the amount of blood covering her ajar front door.

Umi looked to the top of the road as Eli hopped off the bike, kicking the stand down for the blonde as she rushed to the door. Umi squinted, not surprised to see a group of walkers hunched over what she assumed was some unfortunate people who didn’t find somewhere safe in time. That thought just reminded her of the group of people she lead into a deathtrap, people who had trusted her to their deaths.

“DAD!”

Umi spun around hastily to the door at the sound of Eli’s voice, not wasting a moment to ready her bow as she rushed to the door. She quickly kicked it open, stepping inside and pointing her bow at the first thing she spotted. Her chest stung as she finally found Eli.

Eli was on her knees in a living room cloaked in blood, furniture thrown and knocked around the room with the body of a middle aged woman laid spread out on the floor. Next to Eli was a middle aged man with blood covering the right side of his face and most of his clothes.

“It’s okay, Dad, I-I’m here.” Eli stuttered, barely able to get her words out. Tears slowly cascaded down her pale cheeks and dripped onto the hand she was tightly clinging to as if that would keep her dad okay.

Her father opened his eyes slowly, a smile tugging at his lips though he barely had the strength to show it. “Hi…honey. How’s school?”

Her father tried to laugh but the attempt only made him start to choke on his own blood. He looked away from his terrified daughter, coughing out the blood he was choking on.

He quickly noticed Eli looking towards her mother’s body on the floor and at the bullet wound in the side of her head.

“W-what…” Eli couldn’t get the words out through how hard she was crying. Her mother was dead on the floor. “H-how?”

“Someone…was banging at the door.” Eli’s dad started to explain as he noticed Umi behind his daughter. He assumed she was a friend of Eli’s. “I thought he was hurt so I opened the door. Your mother, god I love that woman, pushed me out of the way when it lunged at me.”

“It bit her?” Umi questioned weakly when she noticed Eli’s father beckening her to enter the room. She did so, lowering the bow to her side. She sniffed, recognizing the scent of gas.

“Yes. We pushed it out and slammed the door in its face. Literally.” Eli’s dad continued to explain, running his hand down his daughter’s rosy face, tears running down his own. “It was too late. Rei…she started to turn. She managed to hold it back but not in time to stop herself biting me too…and breaking my leg.”

“W-what?! NO! THAT’S NOT FAIR.” Eli started to yell, wrapping her arms around her father. “YOU CAN’T GO TOO. I NEED YOU.”

“You stopped needing me by the time you joined school.” Her father’s words started to slur, his voice growing quieter. “I…I’m just so happy I got to see you grow into such a beautiful and strong woman. Just like your mother.”

Umi bit her down on her lip, looking away with her hold on her bow tightening. She felt so powerless. Eli needed her and she can’t do anything beside stand there like a scarecrow.

“How…did she die?” Eli couldn’t stop thinking about how her mother died. It looked like she had been shot but she couldn’t see her dad being the one to pull the trigger.

“Your mother, was one of the strongest…beautiful girls I knew. Before she fully turned she ran upstairs and got your brother’s gun from his room…” Eli’s father started to explain as he noticed his daughter’s eyes widen in horror.

“Arisa!”

“I’m on it.” Umi quickly turned around and sprinted up the stairs before she started searching every room.

“B-before she turned. Your mother…” Eli’s father couldn’t stop the tears as he continued the explanation. “She said she loved me before she shot herself to save me.”

“She’s not here!” Umi added, short of breath as she returned to Eli’s side.

“Wait…Arisa isn’t with you?” Eli’s father weakly questioned, about to fall to the side before Eli grabbed onto him, pulling him back up.

“No, I thought she would be here!” Eli exclaimed as she noticed Umi kneeling down next to her, resting her hand on Eli’s shoulder.

“Eli. You need to find her.” Her father spoke using the last of his strength. Only Eli’s hold on him was now the only thing holding him up. His attention turned to Umi, a smile on his face. “You are?”

“Sonoda Umi!” Umi answered quickly, jumping a little as Eli’s father’s free hand came to rest on her shoulder.

“Please take care of my daughters.” Eli’s father asked before loud banging suddenly began, coming from the back door. “They’re back. Listen, on the fireplace are the keys for the car outside. Take this and get going.”

Eli’s eyes widened as she felt something heavy fall into her hand. Her father moved his hand out the way, showing the 9mm handgun her brother had in his room. “NO! I’M NOT LEAVING YOU.”

Her father smiled as he looked towards Umi and nodded. “Go.”

Umi nodded in return before standing up, and grabbed the keys from the top of the fireplace before leaving the house.

Eli looked towards the front door in confusion before turning back to her dad. “WHAT DID YOU TELL HER TO DO?!”

“I told her to get the car ready. You need to go, before I do what I’m going to do.” Her father explained as he squirmed himself out of Eli’s grip, falling to the side of the chair next to him.

Eli looked on in confusion as her father pulled out a box of matches. Only then did she finally smell the gas. “B-but…”

“Eli. I love you, but do as your father tells you one last time!” He bellowed before the two of them smiled, sharing one last hug.

“I love you too. G…GOODBYE DAD!” Eli yelled as she ran out the house, tears streaming from her eyes.

Umi looked on from the back of the SUV where she was placing the motorbike on the rack at the back of the SUV. “Eli?!”

“We need to go!” Eli said firmly as she wiped her eyes, getting in the passenger seat. She couldn’t get any of her thoughts in order at that moment. The only thing she could do was go look for any of the other members parents.

Umi got into the driver seat, driving out of the driveway with everything she’d managed to get from the shop in the back. She hoped Eli was going to be okay, even if it takes a while for her to get better.

—

Eli’s dad opened his eyes again at the sound of the back door finally being smashed in but by that time he had already managed to crawl his way to Rei’s dead body. “I knew I would die beside you, honey.”

He smiled as he noticed the walkers start to pile in, feeling lucky there wasn’t any fast ones. He weakly opened the matches and pulled one out. “I love you Rei…and I’m coming to you again.”

He chuckled weakly as he struck the match off the side of the box, causing the end of the match to catch ablaze. Within a instant, the entire house went up in a giant explosion, taking out the houses adjacent to it.

—

Kotori stopped a step before the electrified perimeter fence of the Military base, dropping the heavy sandbag behind it so that it was impossible to see through it. It wasn’t finished of course, they were only about a 10th of the way through. She stood upright, wiping the sweat from her brow.

She knew why they were doing it but she wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to finish by the time night rolled around. As much as she would have liked to believe the games and films about what was going on, in each one the walkers would always get more aggressive at night time. She just hoped that was wrong.

“Kotori-chan, take this.”

Kotori turned to the side with a heavy breath, surprised to find Hanayo standing next to her with her arm stretched out and a small bottle of water in her hand.  
  
“I know it’s not much, but there isn’t anything else here and you need to keep hydrated.”

“Thanks, Hanayo-chan.” Kotori smiled as she accepted the drink, opening it and taking a small sip before she started to head back to the warehouse for another sandbag. “Weren’t you supposed to be reinforcing the west fence?”

“I am.” Hanayo answered with a puzzled expression. “Why?”

“This is the east fence. West is on the other side, Maki-chan is also there.”

Hanayo frowned as she looked towards Kotori, her eyes widening in horror a moment later. “Oh no, i’m at the wrong side!”

“It’s okay.” Kotori spoke softly, gently resting her hand on Hanayo’s shoulder. “I’ll ask Nico-chan to swap sides with you, not that Maki-chan would mind, and you can work on this side with me.”

Hanayo smiled, a little confused about the Maki comment but she chose to ignore it. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

Kotori smiled as she turned to Nico, watching her in surprise as she walked past them with two sandbags slung over her shoulders. For her small frame, she was surprisingly strong.

“Nico-chan!” Kotori called, only just noticing how Nico had her hair. Instead of her usual two pigtails, she now had her hair in a single ponytail.

“What?” Nico didn’t stop to talk, instead she continued to the fence and dropped the two sandbags she was holding onto the wall of sandbags. “I’m busy, and you should be too.”

Kotori chuckled awkwardly as she looked to Hanayo. “Do you mind swapping with Hanayo-chan and go help Maki-chan?”

“Whatever, as long as this gets done by night.” Nico sighed as she walked away, grabbing four sandbags on the way past.

Kotori could see that Nico was finding carrying the extra sandbags a little harder than before but it wasn’t enough to risk her dropping them.

Kotori smiled as she watched the smaller girl. She was fairly sure that Nico was only carrying so much to show off to Maki

—

Izetta shuddered slightly as continued to drive to bike, looking down at her waist for an instant. She could feel Honoka trembling behind her. They had been to Nico, Umi and Rin’s houses but the only thing they’d found was the dead bodies of the parents with Nico’s siblings still missing. She was worried everything was starting to get to Honoka.

“I…I live up the road on the right. The sweet shop.” Honoka spoke with a hesitant tone, not sure what she was going to find at her house. She didn’t know what she was going to do if her parents had met the same fate as Nicos and Rin’s.

“Okay.” Izetta looked around before pulling up at the shop. She was happy that they decided to lure the walkers away by turning loud music on in a music shop before going to Honoka’s home. It looked like the sound lured all the infected away.

Honoka flinched at the sound of something smashing inside the house, making her quicky jump off the bike.

“Mom! Dad! Yukiho!”

“Honoka-senpai, wait!” Izetta barely had time to get off the bike herself before Honoka had rushed towards the door, barging into the house shoulder first.

Izetta growled, kicking the bike’s stand down before she pulled out the revolver again. She didn’t know what was happening in there but whatever it was, she was going to be ready.

She rushed after Honoka with her revolver in hand, barging through the dark wood front door.

“…You don’t have to do this.”

Izetta turned quickly and pointed the gun at the sound of Honoka’s voice. She was only able to catch the last part of what Honoka said as she entered the house.

Honoka smiled as she looked towards the walker holding down Maki’s mother, choosing to question why she was there later.

The walker moved off of Maki’s mother and pushed itself towards Honoka with blood dripping from it’s mouth.

Izetta quickly knelt down beside the door next to Honoka’s mother’s body, feeling for a pulse. Her mother was still alive and didn’t look like she had any bite marks.

Honoka held out her arms as the walker got closer, ready to accept it with a warm embrace. “See, we can get you a…”

The walke lunged forward towards the orange haired girl, it’s teeth ready to rip out pieces of Honoka’s neck.

Honoka’s blood froze over when a deafening bang echoed around them. The walker’s face looked like it folded in on itself as a bullet ripped through it’s head taking a large portion of bone, brain and blood with it across the room.

“DAD!”

Izetta eyes widened as she stumbled back, only just realising who the walker was. Who she killed. Her chest stung as Honoka looked towards her, hatred in her eyes.

Honoka stood up slowly off the floor, leaving her father’s dead body behind. She walked over to Izetta, grabbing her by the cuff of her jacket and slammed her against the wall.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” Honoka bellowed in anger, slamming her fist into where Izetta’s head was. Izetta quickly moved to the side before she got hit and kicked the back of Honoka’s leg, forcing Honoka to drop to her knee.

“I was protecting you Honoka-senpai! He was GOING TO EAT YOU!” Izetta turned away from Honoka, about to check on Maki’s mother when she felt something leave her hand.

She turned around slowly, her eyes widening as Honoka had the revolver aimed at Izetta’s head. “You killed my dad. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

Honoka looked down for a moment before she pulled the revolver’s hammer back with tears in her eyes. She knew her father was one of them but she didn’t care. He didn’t have to die. There could have been a cure somewhere.

“Honoka!”

Honoka flinched at the familiar voice, turning to the side to see her mother had woken up and was staring at her with a terrified look on her face.  
  
“What are you going?! Why do you have a gun?!”

“I…” Honoka was about to speak when she felt the revolver move a little. She turned around to see Izetta right next to her as she moved the barrel of the revolver against her forehead.

“Shoot me then.” Izetta breath was shaky as she spoke, tightening her grip on the gun. She hoped the knew Honoka enough to test her plan. “I’m sorry I had to shoot your dad but you were in danger. Before this, I thought we were friends and I don’t let anything happen to the people I care about.”

Honoka’s hands began to tremble at Izetta’s words, the tears she were trying to hold back flooding out like river. “I…Dad. I…”

Honoka trailed off into muffled cries as Izetta lowered the revolver from her head, pulling Honoka closer so she was crying into her jacket. “I’m sorry, Honoka-senpai. I’m so sorry.”

“Why…why did this have to happen?!” Honoka softly started to pound her fist into Izetta’s chest, letting out the little anger she had left towards the red haired girl.

Izetta stayed quiet as Honoka continued to drop her fist against her jacket, watching while Honoka’s mother slowly rose off the ground with her hand on her head.

“What happened? And if you don’t mind me asking, why is Maki-senpai’s mother here?” Izetta looked back towards Maki’s mother, assuming she was the mother was Maki because of how alike they looked.

“Yetsuna…he saved me. He pushed me out the back door before any of them could get to me. I came here to look for help but when I got here Otonashi had already started to attack Hikaru.” Maki’s mother explained before she frowned, noticing Izetta looking at her in confusion.

Izetta didn’t really know how to reply to what she heard. All she heard was a bunch of names she didn’t recognize. “Who?…What?…Who? Repeat all that please.”

“My name is Hikaru, that’s Yui, Otanashi is…was my husband and Yetsuna was Maki’s dad.” Honoka’s mother explained as she looked towards her husband’s dead body, determined to keep her tears hidden. The last thing Honoka needed was to see her mother crying too. “You should get your car, Yui.”

Yui nodded as she moved towards the door, passing Honoka and Izetta on the way. She couldn’t imagine what Honoka and the other girl had been through. What they must have seen.

Honoka quickly shot up off the spot, jumping to her feet with the revolver still in her hand. “YUKIHO!”

Izetta looked towards Hikaru in confusion at another name she didn’t recognize as Honoka sprinted up the stairs “Who?”

“Her sister.” Hikaru spoke with a nervous voice, her hand holding onto the other to stop them from shaking. She had though for sure that Yukiho would have been with Honoka somewhere safe.

“She isn’t here!” Honoka returned from searching up stairs and jumped from the fourth step of the stairs, landing near Izetta. “Have you heard from Yukiho?!”

“No. I thought she was with you.” Hikaru turned as she heard the sound of a car pulling up outside of her house. She wasn’t surprised Yui took so little time to get back, she only lived a short distance away.

“Come on Hono…”

“Take this.” Honoka quickly interrupted before Izetta could finish, placing the revolver in her hand. Walking past Yui and towards the motorbike. The car was parked on the driveway with the front door open.

“Where are you going?” Izetta asked quickly, following the orange haired girl out of the house.

“To look for Yukiho.” Honoka walked over to the motorbike as quickly as she cold, putting the lessons she got from Eli to good use. “Take them back to the base.”

“Honoka-senpai wait!” Izetta reached forward as she watched Honoka raced away on the bike, turning the corner and out of sight. “God…damnit”

—

“Maki?” Nico called out, stopping next to the west fence. Kotori had told her that Maki was assigned to reinforcing the west wall but so far she was nowhere to be found.

“What?” Maki questioned as she stepped out from the small shed with sandbags in it, one of them in her hands. She frowned in irritation as she noticed the amount of bags Nico was carrying. “What are you doing? You’re going to…”

“Agh.” Nico hissed in pain as she dropped the sandbags to the floor, her hand immediately going to her right arm bicep.

“…pull something.”

“I’m fine, lets just…fuck!” Nico started saying as she tried to pick up one of the sandbags again. She dropped it immediately, looking away from Maki. She’d wanted to look strong in front of her but now she only looked like an idiot.

“Excuse me?!” Maki questioned in shock as her face went flush. She starting to sheepishly play with her fingers. She had imagined what would happen when she eventually told Nico her feelings but she’d never expected her to just ask to have sex. “I-I-I guess we…could but shouldn’t we wait until after we’ve finished the fence?”

Nico sat down on the floor nearby, looking towards Maki in confusion. “Did you say something? I didn’t hear you.”

“NO!” Maki replied loudly before turning away from Nico in an attempt to hide her red face.

Nico sighed as she tried to move her arm but every movement put her in a lot of pain. “How can we finish the fence now?! Damn it!”

Maki turned back to her with a gentle smile, walking over to her side. “Don’t worry about it. Put your arm straight and hold it there for a moment.”

Nico nodded even though she was slightly confused. She did what Maki said as the red haired girl moved towards the shed again.

“There it is.” Maki stepped out from the shed with a small red box in her hand. She knelt down next to Nico before she opened the box.

Nico looked into the box, surprised to see it was a first aid kit filled to the brim with medical supplies. “You know what you’re doing?”

“This is going to sting.” Maki said as she grabbed a tube of numbing cream. She squirted a small amount onto Nico’s bicep. She was surprised to see that Nico had strong muscle despite her petite size.

Nico hissed as Maki rubbed the cream into her arm, watching in awe. She never knew Maki knew how to apply first aid to someone beside the time she’d bandaged Umi.

“That will become numb in a few minutes. And of course I know what I’m doing.” Maki said firmly, returning the cream to the red box. She neatly organised the box before removing a bandage. “I want to be a doctor when i’m older…well, I wanted to be one.”

Nico noticed immediately when Maki’s tone changes, depression taking over. “Yeah, I wanted to be a model.”  
  
“What for? Children’s clothes?”

“WHAT?!” Nico bellowed in anger, turning quickly toward Maki. The two stared at one another for a few minutes before they burst into laughter. They knew that they were going to have to enjoy the little things from now on.

“I’ll bandage your arm now.”

Nico nodded at Maki’s statement, happy to see a smile on the red haired girl’s face. Even if hers was only a fake smile, she was still happy she’d made Maki a little happier.

—

Umi glanced quickly to Eli as she turned the corner, worry getting the better of her. She hadn’t said a single word since they left Eli’s house and her father behind.

Since then, they had been to Kotoris and Maki’s houses but the only thing they found were dead bodies.

“We’re getting close to Hanayo’s…just around the next turn.”

Umi nodded at the depressed blonde’s instructions, doing what she said. They pulled up outside one of the houses, glancing at the address. “Looks like this is it.”

Eli nodded slowly, opening the door slowly. She stepped out of the car, looking around. She was surprised to see all the walkers at the other side of the street still, all of them looking up gormlessly at the dusk sky.

“We need to hurry, it’s getting dark…” Umi trailed off as she noticed something move behind the curtains inside Hanayo’s house. She quickly grasped onto her bow before pointing to the door.

Eli nodded, the two of them quickly rushing to the door. They cautiously took cover at either side of the door. They had no idea what they were going to find inside but something inside had moved. They just hoped that whoever was inside was alive.

“Three, two, one, now.” Eli whispered before moving in front of the door, kicking it open and moving back to cover in one swift motion.

Umi walked in first, her bow drawn and ready for whatever they’d find. They followed the corridor to the living room as Eli closed the front door behind them, making sure no walkers entered behind.

“I’ve got nothing left to lose, so bring it you sacks of shit!”

Umi ducked and rolled to the side at the sudden voice, barely dodging a metal baseball bat swinging from the kitchen, smashing into the wall where she was.

“Wait…” Umi exhaled as the bat swung back into her stomach. She felt the air being knocked from her lungs as she stumbled back.  She fell to the floor before she looked up, noticing the bat had stopped an inch away from her head.

Hanayo’s father stood in front of her with the bat in his hands and a confused look on his face. “You’re friends of my daughter.”

“Yeah, she’s safe.” Eli walked quickly over to Umi, dropping to her knees. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, thanks.” Umi coughed, standing up again when Hanayo’s dad lowered the bat. “Where’s Hanayo’s mom?”

“She’s…one of them, I saw her walk past the house a while ago. Sorry by the way.” Hanayo’s dad sat down on the couch in the living room, resting the bat on the floor next to him. “Hanayo is very…timid. I thought she would have been one of them too. Thank god.”

“We should get going. We have a car outside.” Umi spoke softly as she looked out the window and up the road. The walkers were still standing still, looking up at the black sky. She didn’t know why but it creeped her out.

“Okay, let’s go. I want to see my daughter again.” Hanayo’s dad said as he walked towards the front door with his baseball bat in hand. “Oh, my name is Tatsuya.”

“I’m Sonoda Umi and this is Ayase Eli.” Umi replied with a smile, walking outside with Eli and Tatsuya following. It was windier than she remembered.

Eli stopped as the clock inside the house stuck midnight, a quiet ding echoing out the house. She frowned as she noticed Umi staring at the walkers with a mixture of confusion and fear on her face.

Umi continued to watch as suddenly all the walkers started to shake uncontrollably, almost like they were being electrocuted. “Get in the car…we need to go, now.”

“Umi?” Eli looked on in concern as Umi started to walk backwards, fear getting the better of her.

Umi’s eyes widened in horror when the walkers suddenly stopped, all of them tuning to the small group in unison. Each walker had bright red eyes and they were stuck on Umi, Eli and Tatsuya. “GET IN NOW!”

The three of them quickly piled into the car, struggling to start the engine as the group of walkers started to sprint toward them on all fours.

“Umi, go!” Eli yelled as she looked behind them. The walkers were almost on top of them.

“I’m trying!”

Eli and Umi unintentionally let out a small scream as the walkers lunged onto the car, starting to slam their hands onto the windows.

Eli’s eyes widened as she noticed the walkers beginning to rip apart the car’s body, yanking off steel plating like it was nothing.

“There!” Umi exclaimed as she stamped on the reverse pedal, running over one or two of them before spinning the car around. Without a second delay, they started to drive away at top speed.

Tatsuya looked out the back window as the car skidded around the corner and further up the road, his eyes widened in horror when the walkers turned the corner as well, almost catching up with the car.

“How the hell are they keeping up with us?!” He quickly sat forward on the chair in the fetal position. “We can’t get away. We’re all going to die.”

Eli growled as she turned around, looking through the window. She wasn’t going to let them die after fighting their way out the school. “Keep driving and don’t stop. I’ve got an idea.”

“What is…” Umi froze when she turned around. Eli had opened the car window and crawled onto the roof of the car, slowly making her way to the bike. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

“The bike is faster! I’m going to act as a decoy.”

“NO! THAT’S STUPID…” Umi watched in a state of shock as Eli hopped onto the back of the bike, starting the engine.

Eli looked to the side, only just realising how suicidal what she was doing truly was. If she fell, there was nothing stopping her from being eaten. She growled, shaking the thoughts out of her head. She couldn’t let herself think like that.

She pulled up on the handles, hopping off the car as it went past a crossing and drove down a different street. As she expected, all the walkers had started following her instead of the car.

She skidded around the corner, ducking into a back alley. She didn’t know what had happened to walkers but they were acting differently than the ones in the school.

“Ah!”

Eli braked suddenly at a familiar voice though it was a voice she hasn’t heard much. To the side of her, hiding behind a large dumpster, Eli could hear a child.

“Hello?” Eli called out, her eyes widened in shock as the black haired girl poked her head out of cover. “Cocoro?!”

Cocoro smiled wildly as she rushed over to the bike. “Help. Some men have my brother and sister.”

“Where?” Eli turned around at the sound of the walkers getting closer. The only reason why they weren’t on her already was because they were all trying to get into the small back alley at the same time and got stuck. “Get on.”

Cocoro nodded, climbing on the bike in front of Eli. “Just turn right at the end of this alley.”

Eli nodded as she revved the engine, speeding away again just as the walkers got close to her. She couldn’t wait to get back to the base with Nico’s siblings but it also reminded her that Arisa and Yukiho were still out there somewhere.

She turned the corner, surprised to see five soldiers at the far end of the road with Cocoa and Cotaro with them.

Four of the soldiers were on foot with assault rifles in hand while the last one was in the back of a truck on a mounted turret.

“GET TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!”

Eli suddenly swerved to the right and against the wall as the walkers poured out of the alley. In a matter of seconds, the quietness of the night was shattered by the defining bangs of bullets.

Eli looked behind her once the shooting had stopped, letting out a sigh of relief. All of the walkers were dead, nearly all of their bodies riddled with bullets.

“Ayasa-san!” Cocoa and Cotaro yelled happily as she wheeled the bike over to them and the soldiers. They quickly started running toward Eli and Cocoa.

“Is Onee-chan okay?” Cocoa questioned quietly while looking up to Eli.

“Nico? Yeah, she’s safe. She’s too stubborn to die.”

—

Nico sneezed suddenly and caught Maki off guard, making her drop on of the sandbags on the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Maki inquired, picking the bag back up again.

“Someone’s talking about me.”

“Yeah, because the walkers are such great fans of yours. Could you help me with your good arm at least?” Maki questioned in a sarcastic and irritated tone, getting back to work.

—

“Yeah. She’s fine.” Eli continued to say before turning to the soldiers who were busy fixing the truck the fifth man was in. There was something off with their uniforms. She was sure that if Izetta was there too she would say the same thing.

Her brother’s uniform had a different cameo on it. The areas where the pockets were located were different too on the uniforms of these soldiers.

“You guys from the army?” Eli inquired as she helped Cocoa and Cotaro onto the bike in front of her with all three of the siblings holding onto each other so they wouldn’t fall off.

“That’s right. We were sent to help.”

Eli frowned as one of the soldiers answered. She knew that if the army were sending soldiers in near where she lives her brother would have been one of the only soldiers to volunteer to go. “What squad are you with?”

“What?…Umm. You probably wouldn’t know it, we’re sent all over the place to help.”

“Tell us, please?” Cocoa questioned with her puppy dog eyes staring at the soldiers. She knew eventually one of the would break.

“Urgh, fine. It’s a stupid name but I’m a part of HEART.”

Eli growled in response, revving the engine before spinning around with the gas on. The managed to get the bike around before the smoke from the exhaust blocked the view of them.

“Hold on!” Eli reved again before driving away as fast as the bike could. She knew they weren’t real soldiers. Because of the law against Japan using troops outside of their country, they decided that they would only use one squad of soldiers with other countries permission. That team had her brother in it and it was named HEART by someone in the team.

“Fire!”

Eli cried out in pain a second after the soldiers started to open fire, one of the bullets ripping through Eli’s shoulder.

“Ayasa-san!”

The three children cried out in unison as Eli skidded around the corner, tumbling off the bike just out of sight of the soldiers.

Eli held her shoulder, hissing in pain as the thick red liquid ran down her hand. She never expected to see other people pretending to be soldiers. She couldn’t even imagine what type of things they would of done with Nico’s siblings if they got them.

“Agh!” Eli breathed heavily as she stood up, walking wobbly to the bike. She knew she and the children were hurt but they needed to get out of there before the soldiers got to them. They were clearly the shoot first ask questions later type.

“My…arm.” Cocoa whimpered as she held her arm next to her chest, tears running down her eyes. The only thing she could feel was pain and her arm couldn’t hurt.

“I know it hurts and I’m sorry I can’t do something about it but we need to go.” Eli barely had the strength to lift the bike on her own as she watched Cocoro helping her little brother up off the floor.

Slowly, Eli helped the three children onto the bike with Cocoro holding onto Cocoa and Cotaro so they wouldn’t fall off, taking extra care for Cocoa because of her arm.

Eli revved the engine again, happy the bike still worked. She was worried that the engine might of taken a stray bullet or something similar.

She drove off quickly but slower than she was originally. She needed to get back to the base as quickly as she could.

—

“Damn it.”

One of the ‘soldiers’ complained in irritation  as he turned to the man on the mounted machine gun. “They would of been great for the tests. What do we do now sir?”

“Fall back…and find out how we keep on getting figuring out.” The captain of the ‘soldiers’ ordered as they all piled into the truck.

—

“They should be back by now.” Kotori paced from side to side  beside the main gate after they all finished reinforcing the perimeter fence with sandbags. “What if something happened?”

“Calm down, Kotori-chan. Getting worked up won’t help anyone.” Hanayo said softly as she looked to the main gate. She had to admit that she was starting to worry too.  None of them had any proper training. They were all high school students.

“Yeah, nya. Honoka-chan, Eli-chan and Umi-chan are some of the most reliable people I know and it looks like the new girl knows her way around a fight too. Nya.” Rin added in her usual bubbly tone, something that the others were all either confused or impressed about.

They were impressed by how, even though the world was ending, she still had a smile on her face but they were also worried that she wasn’t taking the new world they were in seriously. If she wasn’t, it could end in her death.

“Her name’s Izetta-chan.” Kotori stopped as she heard an engine approaching the main gate. It wasn’t long before Izetta pulled up at the main gate in Maki’s  mother’s car.

“That’s my mother’s car.” Maki stepped forward, tears building up at the side of her eyes as her mother stepped out from the back of the car. “Mom!”

“Maki!”

Yui barely had a moment to react before she was wrapped tightly in a warm embrace by her daughter.

“I thought I lost you!” Maki cried out, letting the tears she held back flow free. She knew by the fact that her father wasn’t there that he must have been killed.

“Izetta-chan…where’s Honoka-chan?” Kotori questioned as she got close to the red haired girl, her question interrupting the hug she was about to give.

“She drove off without me…” Izetta answered, looking down to the floor ashamed.

“What happened?”

“I…killed her dad…but he was one of them!” Izetta looked away from Kotori’s horrified expression. “He was going to eat her!”

Kotori nodded slowly as a response. She understood why Izetta had done what she had but she knew Honoka better than anyone else, beside maybe Umi. She just hoped that Honoka won’t do something crazy.

Hanayo turned at the sound of another engine. She had started to wonder if they should get into cover or something just in case the person driving up to them wasn’t a part of their group.

Umi pulled up to the base in a badly damaged car which looked like it was about to break down at any moment. She drove in a little and parked near the group.

Hanayo smiled widely as Tatsuya stepped out of the back of the car holding onto his baseball bat. “DAD!”

“Hanayo!” Tatsuya yelled in happiness, wrapping his arms tightly around his daughter as tears ran down his face. “I thought you were gone for so long. I’m so glad your safe.”

“Where’s mom?” Hanayo gasped as her father’s smile faded away almost immediately, looking away from his daughter ashamed. She didn’t need him to answer anymore, it was clear what the answer was.

“Where’s Eli-chan?” Kotori questioned in panic. Again, half of a team had returned.

“Something happened with the walkers and they became…feral. Eli took the bike and drove away as a decoy. I don’t know if…”

“Elichi!”

Everyone jumped at Nozomi’s sudden outburst, turning quickly to her. Nozomi stepped out from the barracks quickly, rushing over to the main gate. She and Rin had been sleeping in one of the rooms in the barracks because they’d finished their section of the fence early. No one had really expected them to wake up again that night.

Eli wobbled weakly to the main gate while blood oozed from the front and back of her shoulder, pushing Nico’s siblings forward on the top of the bike. “Where’s…Nico?”

Izetta quickly moved over to Eli as she fell forward, catching her while Umi helped Cocoro, Cocoa and Cotaro off the bike.

“Onee-chan!” The three of them yelled at once as Nico stepped out from the main building, surprised to be suddenly hugged by two of the three siblings

“I’m so glad your safe!” Nico exclaimed, barely able to wrap her arms completely around the two children. She frowned when she noticed Cocoa holding onto her arm. “Cocoa? Are you okay?”

Nico quickly got to her feet, the thought that Cocoa might have been bitten crossing her mind. She didn’t know what she would do if her little sister had been.

“My arm…really hurts.”

“Mom.” Maki turned quickly to her mother, hoping she would know what to do.

“It looks like it’s broken. We better get Eli and…” Yui started to say before she looked to Nico, hoping she was going to tell her the child’s name.

“Cocoa.”

“We better get Cocoa and Eli to the Infirmary. Izetta, could you help?” Maki’s mother turned to Izetta, surprised to see her looking at the car with a worried expression.

“W-what? I-I mean yes!” Izetta stuttered before she started following Yui inside the main building with Nozomi following close behind.

"Wait!”

Izetta paused as Eli yelled, turning her around to everyone else with her ear still ringing from how close she was to Eli when she yelled.

Eli breathed heavily before she hissed pain, standing upright. “Don’t trust the soldiers. They are not real soldiers.”

“What about soldiers? Wait…what happened to you?!”

Umi and Kotori spun around quickly to the main gate. They were so distracted that they didn’t even hear the engine of one of the motorbikes approaching the base.

Honoka skidded to a stop inside the base, quickly climbing off the bike before she rushed over to Eli’s side.

“I’ll explain inside.” Eli let out long sigh, walking with Izetta into the main building. It was just like Honoka to turn up at the last minute, completely oblivious to what had been going on.

—

Yukiho’s eyes flickered as she stirred into consciousness. She opened her eyes to the feeling of something heavy covering her mouth though she could still breath perfectly fine.

Her eyes widened in horror as she found herself looking out from inside a glass cylinder filled with a strange green liquid. For as far as the eye could see there was glass cylinders like hers with people inside them. All of them filled with the green liquid.

She tried to think back to her latest memory. The last thing she could remember was being saved by a group of soldiers before one of them knocked out Arisa then she assumed they did the same to her.

She gasped when she looked down, her confusion turning into anger as she noticed she was wearing a white dress.

“They changed my clothes!” Yukiho yelled in irritation but to anyone outside the glass it would only sound like loud muffled cries.

Yukiho started to look around, trying to find a way out. She need to get out of wherever she was and find Arisa before they come back and give her a third arm or something else just as weird.

She looked up at the top of the class tube, smiling as she noticed a small crack. It wasn’t much but it was a good start. She rolled backward in the green liquid so she was floating upside down, hissing with pain as the medical cables injected into her wrist were yanked out. A small amount of the green liquid turned red with her blood.

With everything she had, she kicked against the crack. Within a second, the entire front of the glass cylinder shattered, washing her and the green liquid out onto the white floor.

Yukiho coughed heavily, yanking the metal oxygen mask from her face. She didn’t have time to look around or try to help anyone else even though she really wanted to. She needed to find Arisa before anyone figured out she was out.

She began to run down the incredibly long corridor, the only lights to guide her way coming from the other test tubes around her. It made her sick to see so many people being tested on. Even worse than that they had tried to do it to her and her best friend.

“H-help…”

Yukiho skidded to a stop, her eyes widening in horror. A girl no more than a year older than her hung inside one of the test tubes without any liquid in it or a front to it. She had long brown hair and her eyes were different colours, the left one being brown whereas the other one was amber.

The entire right side of her had been mutated into some kind of creature, green blood dripping from it’s finger. It looked like her eye had changed colour thanks to what they had done to her and not because of Heterochromia iridum.

“Don’t worry, I’ll…Agh!” Yukiho went to try to help her but as she got close a drop of the green blood dripped onto her arm. She yanked her arm back in pain, looking down in a state of shock as almost all the skin on her arm had started to burn away like the girl’s blood was acid.

“I-i’m sorry. AAAGGGGHH!”

Yukiho flinched as the girl let out an echoing inhuman scream throughout the corridors. In an instant, large claws ripped through her fingers on the right hand. She was still changing.

Yukiho felt cold all of a sudden as the girl started to laugh, lunging forward to Yukiho but the wires holding her yanked her back an inch away from Yukiho’s face.

“You’re gonna die down here, bitch.” The girl continued to laugh, looking towards Yukiho with both of her eyes now amber.

Yukiho looked down at her arm, freezing in place in a state of shock and confusion. Not only did the arm not hurt anymore, the skin was slowly healing. The arm was almost entirely back to normal by that point.

Yukiho closed her eyes, hoping she was right about the girl. She quickly grabbed onto the girl’s left hand. “You can’t give in to what they are doing to you. Fight!”

Yukiho yelled, tightening her grip on the normal hand even though the green blood was burning her skin again. Luckily, the skin was healing at the same rate as the burning so nothing was being too badly damaged.

The girl slowly stopped smiling and laughing, her body beginning to tremble. She looked back towards Yukiho with brown eyes again and tears running thick and fast down her cheek. “I’m so sorry!”

“Shhhh. It’s okay.” Yukiho spoke softly as she turned her attention to the wires holding the girl in place. “I’m gonna get you out of here too. I’m Yukiho by the way. Yukiho Kurosawa.”

“I’m Emily…” The girl was about to answer when Yukiho suddenly fell to the ground, four sedative darts sticking out of her back. “YUKIHO!”

“Looks like one got out.”

Emily’s eyes widened as two soldiers walked beside Yukio’s unconscious body. She growled, her eyes turning amber again as one of the guard swung his leg into Yikiho as hard as he could.

The soldiers turned their attention to Emily, laughter escaping their mouth. “I guess the beast found her beauty. Let’s make sure this bitch never sees the light of day again.”

“Don’t call her that!” The soldiers flinched as Emily’s voice changed halfway through her sentence. She swung her claw to the side, breaking through the chains thanks to Yukiho’s tampering.

The soldiers didn’t have time to react before the claw cut through their armour like it was made of paper, splatting blood and chunks of flesh across the floor.

She pulled herself from the machine as the alarms began to ring though she didn’t care. She was acting on pure instant.

Emily leaned down to Yukiho, grabbing her with the human hand before she began to run down the corridor. Her only objective at that moment was to get Yukiho out of there.

Emily threw Yukiho forward as the walls suddenly slammed shut on her. Fours  more soldiers walked to Yukiho’s body, about to move her to another pod.

They froze in place as the two walls began to be pushed open. Emily stood in between the walls, green blood dripping from the monster claw.

“Open fire!”

The captain of the soldiers yelled as they all began to unload large amounts of sedatives into Emily. Before she passed out, Emily managed to throw a large amount of her blood onto one of the soldiers covering them from head to toe. The soldier’s skin, muscles, bones and organs melted away in a puddle in a few seconds.

“Get these two away before anyone else dies.”

The captain breathed heavily, watching the soldiers carry Yukiho and Emily away. He had never expected anything like that to happen. He just had to wait and see what would happen once Emily had mutated fully.

TBC


End file.
